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| Korean budget airline Eastar Jet plans to cut 750 jobs due to financial difficulties from the COVID-19 pandemic. Korea Times file |
By Jung Min-ho
Eastar Jet, a Korean budget airline, plans to lay off 750 employees due to financial difficulties from the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to industry sources Thursday, the company plans to lay off 45 percent of its 1,680 workers ― to 930 ― to keep the business afloat amid the crisis.
The company is also in talks to reduce its fleet by 10 planes to 13.
"The plan has not been finalized," a company official was quoted by Yonhap, a local news agency, as saying. "We are still in talks over the size of layoffs and severance pay."
Many people in the airline industry fear that this will only be the beginning of more job cuts, with the pandemic showing no signs of abating.
Last month, Eastar Jet decided to suspend all domestic and international flights to minimize operating losses.
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