Asiana Airlines Begins Having Employees Take 10 Days of Unpaid Leave
Asiana Airlines was struggling even before this coronavirus outbreak which is making things even harder for the airline:
Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea’s second-biggest airline, on Tuesday said all of its employees will take unpaid leave as air travel demand has plummeted due to the spreading coronavirus outbreak.
Some of about 10,500 employees are set to take 10 days of unpaid leave starting Wednesday. Others will join the cost-cutting measure later in a way that does not affect flights.
Korea Times
Asiana had 4,078 crew members as of Feb. 1, accounting for 39 percent of its total workforce of 10,538, according to the airline.
Asiana Airlines also said it will cut wages of its CEO, executives and heads of departments by 40 percent, 30 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
“We are desperately trying to come up with and implement measures to overcome a crisis of a massive operating loss this year,” Asiana Chief Executive Han Chang-soo said in a statement.
For 2019, Asiana’s net losses widened to 672.6 billion won (US$565.3 million) from 96.2 billion won a year earlier, due mainly to a sharp decline in travel on Japanese routes.
You can read more at the link, but it is interesting that Asiana Airlines is losing money before the coronavirus crisis from a sharp decline on Japanese travel routes. The Korean government has been promoting anti-Japanese sentiment that is in turn destroying one of their biggest airlines.
