United Airlines Warns It May Need To Cut More Than 3,900 Pilots

This spring, when the coronavirus pandemic brought air travel to a virtual halt, 10 U.S. airlines, including United, opted to participate in the Payroll Support Program, taking in more than $25 billion in government loans and grants — funds that are to be used to pay employees until Oct. 1.

Earlier this month, United said it may be forced to furlough up to 36,000 employees, or more than a third of its staff, and it extended voluntary leave and buyout application deadlines into August.

Chicago-based United has previously said it would furlough 2,250 pilots between October 1 and the end of 2020, and an additional 1,650 pilots in 2021, but “we may need to furlough more pilots in 2020, and in 2021, than originally planned,” Bryan Quigley, United’s senior vice president of flight operations, said in a staff note, which was shared with Forbes.

Word of possible additional job cuts — coming just a few weeks after the carrier reached a tentative agreement with the pilots union on furloughs, leaves of absence and early retirements, as reported by the Sun-Times — could be a sign that the forecast for air travel recovery is increasingly dim, an attempt to manage expectations, a subtle push to get more workers to leave voluntarily or some parts of all three.

In the stimulus package still being debated in Congress, lawmakers and airline labor unions are seeking another $32 billion in payroll support for the industry that would protect jobs through the end of March 2021, according to CNBC, and the United memo notes that the unions “have built a strong campaign to advocate for an extension,” of federal assistance.