United Airlines has told employees that it expects its management and administrative ranks to be around 30% smaller starting in October, according to a company memo seen by Reuters.
United is among U.S. airlines that have accepted U.S. government payroll aid that bans job cuts until Sept. 30. U
United has warned that air travel demand hit by the coronavirus pandemic is unlikely to have recovered by that date, forcing it to downsize.
United released the following statement to CNBC:
"Travel demand is essentially zero for the foreseeable future and, even with federal assistance that covers a portion of our payroll expense through September 30, we anticipate spending billions of dollars more than we take in for the next several months, while continuing to employ 100% of our workforce. That's not sustainable for any company. And that's why we are doing everything we can to reduce costs in the near-term so we can bounce back quickly when demand starts to return and help ensure our company and the jobs it supports will be here when customers are flying again."
—CNBC's Phil LeBeau contributed to this report