KLM To Cut 2,000 Jobs Over Spread Of COVID-19

KLM, the Dutch national carrier, has announced that it will slash over 2,000 jobs as the outbreak of the quickly spreading coronavirus necessitates this move.

The airline's Chief Executive, Pieter Elbers said that the airline that has over 33,000 people in its employ will request that its staff work shorter hours as it will be grounding its planes starting from the 1st of April.

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Pieter, in a video, said, “In the coming months we’ll reduce 1,500 to 2,000 jobs to mean that not only in the coming weeks, but in the coming months we will have fewer colleagues."

“We believe this is adequate to ensure that there are no other forced retrenchments.”

KLM, in 2004 merged with Air France, and its principal officers had envisioned a drop by 20 percent in March and in April, 30 percent as it had held off all flights into China and Italy following the outbreak of the virus.

“A lot has happened in the last five days,” Pieter said regarding the spike in the number of infections and deaths recorded globally from the COVID-19 spread.