EasyJet will cut up to 30% of its workforce - about 4,500 jobs in an effort to cut costs amid coronavirus pandemic.

“To effect the restructure of our business, easyJet will shortly launch an employee consultation process on proposals to reduce staff numbers by up to 30%, reflecting the reduced fleet, the optimisation of our network and bases, improved productivity as well as the promotion of more efficient ways of working. We will launch the consultation process in the coming days. EasyJet is also continuing to take decisive action in other cost lines to remove cost and non-critical expenditure from the business at every level," the firm said.

Responding to news of potential job cuts at easyJet, British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) said: “EasyJet staff will be shocked at the scale of this announcement and only 2 days ago staff got a ‘good news’ message from their boss with no mention of job losses, so this is a real kick in the teeth. Those staff have taken pay cuts to keep the airline afloat and this is the treatment they get in return.

It also said that easyJet has not discussed its plans with the association so they will wait and see what impact there will be in the UK.

“But given easyJet is a British company, the UK is its strongest market and it has had hundreds of millions in support from the UK taxpayer, I can safely say that we will need a lot of convincing that easyJet needs to make such dramatic cuts. Indeed, easyJet’s own projections, though on the pessimistic side, point to recovery by 2023, so this is a temporary problem that doesn’t need this ill-considered knee-jerk reaction,” it added.

“We realize that these are very difficult times and we are having to consider very difficult decisions which will impact our people, but we want to protect as many jobs as we can for the long-term,” EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said and added: “We realize that these are very difficult times and we are having to consider very difficult decisions which will impact our people, but we want to protect as many jobs as we can for the long-term.”

Many airlines across the world are temporarily suspending or drastically reducing their flights as they are experiencing record low demand due to coronavirus pandemic. (ILKHA)