EK Shut down
 

I do not know what people in the UAE can see or hear. Emirates has just closed down.

Just the freighters remain, we’re all really in the ****, the industry is really on its knees when this lot down tools.

Well
 

the Company made 2,3b AED 2018 profit last year number for 2019 will never be announced without impact by corona - the company is also only shutting down flights since 2 weeks - yes in those 2 weeks they have closed all of them - and the first thing the financial strongest company does is pay cuts
leaves a few questions in regards to the respect the management has towards its hard working employees

Wonder what kind of pay, if any, will be extended to staff..

50% salary for 3 months so far.

UK flights not suspended so I assume that’s for belly cargo.

2.3B AED on 96B turnover. Hardly a huge margin...

No company is immune from this regardless of how strong you think they are. I’ll take a 50% pay cut for 3 months VS 2 months (or more) leave without pay any day.

Even if it is ‘only 2 weeks’ you must be pretty naive to think that’s all it will be. On top of that things will not magically return to normal after that. A lot of the schedule changes announced only 24 hours ago have cancellations until the end of May or June.

At the end of this year, we should all just hope we can celebrate still having a job.

There is currently more on this story in R&N

That's for pilots and senior cabin staff. Lower pay grades take a 25% or no pay cut. And that's a reduction in basic pay, all allowances like housing and education stay intact. For now at least.

Well that’s the difference to a western world
 

In Germany dir eg the workforce now face a 40% pay cut- in other words 60% of the salary will be payed -from the remaining 40% the state will take up to 60% of the loss towards the employee - therefore the monthly payout shrinks only by Approx 10%

is it wrong to ask that the whole crises is not to be held on the employees and that a rich state like the UAE jumps in and helps the companies - at least for a longer Periode than 2 weeks before such drastic measures are put down to the workforce?

From an update on the EK media relations site:

https://www.emirates.com/media-centr...id-19-updated/

Coronavirus testing queue at EK.

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To be honest I'm pleasantly surprised by the conditions extended to the staff. UAE is not known for their social welfare (to foreigners).

Social distancing obviously not considered an issue ..... It will be interesting to see which side of the argument prevails .

Unless those who are positive are then shipped out of the country for the greater good.

This is a more a matter of necessity rather than welfare. Most EK staff are expats; those that are laid off or whose salaries and benefits are cut significantly would probably have to return to their home countries fairly quickly. This would not only cost the company in terms of repatriation, but when (if?) things turn around it would then be much more challenging and costly to ramp-up staff levels.

This is a pragmatic choice by EK. Their calculus is based on the fact that its a temporary measure, and taking some short term pain is better than the long term impact of laying off staff. Will be interesting to see if this extends beyond a few weeks.

Given the ‘understandable cutbacks’ by EK and other UAE employers, how long before a number of Expat employees will be ‘at risk’ from the UAE’s Debt Laws???

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

The testing is not done for the benefit for the crew but rather to curb the spread of the virus in the UAE.

Positives for EK pilots are now in the double digits.

Less than 1% but still significant I would say.

How can you possibly know that Airbubba?

My point exactly - very non-middle Eastern. One would have expected them to take the most egregious, fool hardened short time decisions. There might be hope after all !

I'm sure this is a very calculated decision. By not forcing people on unpaid leave and with most crew in Dubai they are ready to ramp up with a day's notice when the go is given thereby grabbing a big market share of those who have to travel as soon as they can (lots of people are stuck overseas).

That's a good point. Another thing that comes to mind is that a significant proportion of EK's capacity has served markets that have (so far!) been relatively unaffected by Covid-19; India, much of SEA, Africa etc... I assume that most of that demand will come back quite quickly if the infection numbers in these areas stabilise in the next weeks. Contrast with the American and European airlines, who I think have a much higher capacity serving the badly hit regions.

With its geographically diversified route footprint, if I were a pilot, I'd personally rather be at EK than almost any other airline I can think of right now - purely in terms of job security.

If you think Africa is not affected.. I suggest you think again.

https://www.timeslive.co.za/

And I think India has low rates because they are not testing.

I think partial pay sure beats no pay. I've tried both over the years.

EK knows that they will get government support. And if things get really bad, they can go to the piggy bank in Abu Dhabi. And maybe rebrand as Khalifa Airways sans the A380 'Albatross' fleet.

I think it may the the last straw and drive the merger of Emirates with Etihad and form a purely National airline. Etihad has been losing money hand over fist and this would be the ideal time to reorganise the whole aviation sector in the country. What to do about all the airports though...

That argument could swing both ways. Any northern European airline flying bucket and spade only to Spain needs just one country border to re-open. Each ME3 carrier needs 160+ country borders to re-open, and to stay open, in order to restore its full network coverage. Every time a lock down is lifted, the virus returns from overseas travellers (isn't HK now into its 3rd wave of the virus?)... the M3 need to funnel pax from all 160+ countries to fill those 380s out of the hubs. Even if all country borders stay closed, most other major carriers will have some domestic air travel to fall back on once the virus is contained back home.

I doubt any continent will be immune to major CV-19 outbreaks. I'd rather my chances in North America and Europe than in Africa, India and South East Asia. The west will be quicker to contain this than certain parts of the under developed world... or at least have the billions of dollars to throw at it and try.

Sad times in the sandpit...:{




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The one saving grace for the less developed parts of the world, which are also less democratic, is that they may be a little more autocratic in how they manage the movements of their population. In turn, their inhabitants are more likely to take heed of what they are being told to do. The 'touchy-feely' approach in Europe hasn't worked well but it takes a very strong leader to remove the freedom of those that elected him/her to power, before any crisis has materialised.

A good job you're not stuck in India

Police beating the locals