Brazil’s Gol, LATAM to cut workforce, hours

Brazil’s GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (G3, Sao Paulo Congonhas) is cutting staff wages and hours by up to half and offering voluntary severance packages as it attempts to reduce its costs while LATAM Airlines Brasil (JJ, Sao Paulo Congonhas) aims to lay off 700 employees. Local pilot and crew union (Sindicato Nacional dos Aeronautas – SNA) said that GOL had offered a voluntary severance scheme. Europa Press reported three days later that the LCC had reached an agreement with SNA to also reduce wages and staff hours by up to 50% over the next 18 months in order to avoid layoffs at the carrier. “The members of the GOL Linhas Aéreas associate team approved the three collective agreement proposals presented by the company for a period of 18 months, starting on July 1,” SNA said on June 8. The pay and hour cuts will cover 926 captains, 964 co-pilots, and 3,262 other aircrew and staff. After a month of negotiations, the agreements were approved through online voting carried out in the first week of June and were approved by the vast majority of affected employees. GOL claimed to have Brazil’s largest network, offering customers more than 750 daily flights to over 100 destinations. Releasing traffic figures for May 2020, the airline on June 5 said in the domestic market in May, demand (RPK) was up by 5.0% over April, and supply (ASK) increased by 12.1% in relation to the previous month. GOL’s domestic load factor was 74.8% in May. It did not operate any regular international flights during May.