Dubai-based Emirates airline has offered its cabin crew voluntary unpaid leave as carriers around the world struggle to cope with the impact of coronavirus on the air travel industry, a report said.

 

"We can confirm that we had offered cabin crew the opportunity to apply for voluntary unpaid leave. We will not be providing figures on employee take-up," an Emirates spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times report.

 

Quoting an internal memo, Reuters reported earlier that the carrier's crew was told that they can take unpaid leave between one and three months, starting from September 1 to November 30.

 

Emirates also been reducing its workforce in line with decline in demand for air travel over the next few years due to the pandemic. It reportedly let go some of its crew last week, the report said.

 

Due to low demand, airlines have kept some of their aircraft grounded despite some recovery in air traffic over the past couple of months. Emirates’ network has now grown to 77 cities. 

 

Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer of Emirates, said last week that the airline will be serving 100 per cent of its network destinations by summer 2021, the report added.