Japan’s ANA Holdings to cut 9,000 staff on weak recovery

ANA Holdings has unveiled plans to cut its workforce by about 9,000 employees through March 2026 after it was forced to revise downwards its consolidated net income projections for the current 2021/2 financial year, which ends on March 31, 2022.

In its half-year financials, the holding said the slump in passenger demand brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic had been prolonged, thereby forcing it to revise its full-year numbers downwards from a previously expected profit of JPY28 billion yen (USD246 million) to a net loss of JPY125 billion (USD1.096 billion). The job cuts will primarily affect locally-based ANA – All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda) staff, including cabin crew as well as ground handling teams and will not extend to budget carrier Peach Aviation (MM, Osaka Kansai).

According to the Kyodo news agency, ANA Holdings President Shinya Katanozaka told a media conference that ANA Holdings aims to reduce its headcount from the current 38,000 to about 29,000 over the next five years to rebuild its performance as quickly as possible.

For the first six months of FY2021/2, ANA registered a net loss of JPY116 billion (USD1.02 billion) against a figure of JPY280.95 billion (USD246.4 million) for the same period last year.

“Despite a promising outlook for international cargo demand, the extended impact of COVID-19 due to outbreaks of variants has resulted in a much larger decrease in passenger demand than first anticipated,” it said. “While the number of new infections in Japan is currently decreasing and domestic route demand is showing signs of recovery, the delay in full recovery has led to an estimated JPY320.0 billion (USD2.81 billion) decrease in operating revenues,” it said.

ANA Holdings said that in addition to curbing variable costs related to flight operations, it would also look to cut its fixed costs – such as maintenance and outsourcing costs – to reduce operating expenses.