TOKYO — Japan Airlines is speeding up planned job cuts in an effort to return to profitability and intends to lay off one-third of its workforce this fiscal year instead of over three years as previously announced, the country’s top business newspaper reported today.
The Nikkei said Japan Airlines Corp. is now considering cutting 16,452 employees by March 2011 under a plan that also calls for cutting routes and selling off old equipment.
The company is moving faster because its business is still deeply in the red and is losing 500 million yen to 1 billion yen ($5.3 million to $10.6 million) each day, the paper said.
JAL filed for bankruptcy in January with $25.6 billion in debt and is in the middle of a government-led restructuring under new leadership. Its shares were delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Feb. 20.
A JAL spokeswoman, Szehunn Yap, said no final decisions have been made on its restructuring plan, which will be submitted to the courts by the end of June. The company previously announced it would cut about one-third of its workforce of 47,000, or about 15,000, over a three-year period.
A string of major Japanese companies including Sony and Toyota have cut jobs to cope with the global slump, many of them breaking a tradition of avoiding layoffs. Last year both NEC and Nissan announced they would cut 20,000 workers each.
In February, JAL said it lost a record $2 billion in the nine months through December, but that its results were improving.
JAL is looking for a boost from closer ties with alliance partner American Airlines. The two carriers are seeking government approval to work more closely in areas such as revenue sharing and carrying each other’s passengers.
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