Tunisair to lay off 1,200 employees

Tunisair is to lay off 1,200 workers to ease the financial difficulties that have led to flight delays and the grounding of aircraft due to lack of spare parts, Reuters reports.
Time Aerospace thumbnail

 

Tunisair has a fleet of 30 aircraft, employs a staff of 8,000 people.

 

The company has been suffering losses since the ousting of autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 sent Tunisia into turmoil, deterring tourists and investors.

 

The company’s chief executive, Elyess Mankabi was quoted by Reuters as saying that "the company is suffering from major financial difficulties because of the high number of workers and the wage bill of the company

 

"We’ve proposed to lay off 1,200 workers and we await the government’s approval for this program, which will help the company ease its financial burden and get out of its crisis."

 

“In all parts of the world, each plane is supposed to have about 80 employee but at Tunisair, each plane has 165 workers, which is hitting the company’s balance sheets,” he added.