The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) on Tuesday renewed calls for government intervention to prevent what they called an employment catastrophe in the aviation industry. Estimates from the Air Transport Action Group suggest some 4.8 million aviation workers’ jobs remain at risk as a result of air travel demand falling more than 75 percent in August 2020 compared with the same month a year earlier.
The IATA and the ITF request to governments includes calls to provide continued financial support for the aviation industry, safely remove quarantines, and implement a globally uniform system for pre-departure Covid testing.
“Aviation faces an unprecedented employment catastrophe,” said IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac. “Airlines have cut costs to the bone, but have just 8.5 months of cash left under current conditions. Tens of thousands of jobs have already been lost, and unless governments provide more financial relief, these are likely to increase to the hundreds of thousands.”
IFT general secretary Stephen Cotton added that 80 percent of all government wage replacement programs will expire and amplified the call for immediate intervention to avoid “the biggest jobs crisis the industry has ever seen.”
“But the catastrophic jobs crisis can be avoided with a clear a coordinated strategy built on relief, recovery, and reform,” said Cotton. “The world’s aviation workers are calling on governments to act now, deliver the financial support that will protect their jobs and to commit to working with trade unions and employers to support the industry’s long-term recovery…if governments fail to act and support aviation, not only will they hurt the industry, the impacts will be hard felt by society at large.”
Along with re-opening borders with testing and financial support, the organizations called for governments to develop a so-called roadmap for long-term industry recovery including investment in workforce retraining and “upskilling,” as well as “green” technologies, especially sustainable aviation fuels.
“The ability and speed that countries recover from Covid-19, is closely linked to the recovery of global air connectivity,” said the groups in a joint statement. “Government intervention and investment therefore must not just provide support for the air transport industry now but also to ensure that it is fit for purpose and able to support the world’s return to normality from the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, Livia Spera, general secretary of the European Transport Federation (ETF), on Tuesday called on airlines to fulfill what the trade union group sees as their social responsibilities to employees. Addressing a webinar organized by air traffic management group Eurocontrol, she called for the air transport industry to “build back better” from the Covid crisis. “The industry should not use [Covid] as an excuse to reduce working conditions, as has been done by some companies,” said Spera.
Asked by a Eurocontrol interviewer how airlines facing unprecedented financial pressure could afford to avoid cost-cutting, Spera said that the industry will need to develop more sustainable employment models in the future. She added that to fund the approach, passengers will need to accept that they can’t expect “airfares that are lower than the cost of the bus ride to the airport.”
Spera alleged that some airlines are abusing the support provided by the welfare systems in the countries where they operate in order to pay unsustainable wages and she called on them to act more “responsible.” ETF’s members in the air transport sector include airline ground staff, maintenance workers, and those providing services such as catering.