Colombian Avianca to reduce staff in 30% in two years

Avianca is structuring voluntary plans of retirement and may lay off 6,000 in the next couple years

14.Oct.2020 10:44 BRT

Avianca entered a restructuring process under Chapter 11 U.S bankruptcy laws;
The airline intents to operate with around 14,000 employees in the long term.

Avianca will reduce 30% of its staff in two years: around 6,000 workers, according to an interview that Avianca’s financial director, Adrián Neuhauser gave to Chile’s newspaper La Tercera.

“Before the COVID-19 we were just over 20,000 employees and we were not an efficient company. We believe that the post-COVID airline will be operationally 30% smaller, which would imply a plant of around 14,000 people in the long term,” he said.

“Profitability remains a critical focus. When we redesign the business we believe it will be 70% larger than it was before, we are adjusting the offering,” he said, adding that Avianca is adjusting costs to the new scale.

As LABS has been showing, the Latin America’s second-largest airline entered a restructuring process under Chapter 11 U.S bankruptcy laws amid the pandemic.

Neuhauser also said that the company is structuring voluntary plans of retirement. Regarding the future of the company, he affirmed that they expect to grow at 5% per year, a figure that would take about five to six years to return to pre-pandemic levels.