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Canada's Sunwing Airlines halts operations, lays off 470 pilots Canada's Sunwing Airlines today announced it will suspend operations after March 23, 2020 and all pilots, approximately 470 in total, will be laid off on April 8, 2020. Sunwing's decision to suspend operations and layoff all pilots is the first major layoff announcement of its kind in the Canadian aviation industry. The decision is a direct result of the federal government's COVID-19 travel restrictions and border closure policies. Making matters worse, approximately 125 pilots at Sunwing face possible eviction from company-rented residences in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Quebec City. To address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Unifor, Canada's largest union in the private sector, has called on the federal government and provincial governments to immediately implement a wide series of measures to protect workers across all industries including but not limited to: Establish direct, emergency income assistance measures to all workers and families - including those ineligible for Employment Insurance benefits; Waive the one-week waiting period for regular Employment Insurance benefits and temporarily eliminate the qualifying hours needed to access benefits; Service Canada must issue a directive to employers to code layoffs as "Layoff/Shortage of Work" instead of "other" to ensure no administrative bottlenecks prevent impacted workers from receiving money; Place restrictions on any stimulus funding for the aviation industry to ensure funds are directed to support employees rather than executives; Place a moratorium on all evictions and postpone any and all eviction orders currently in place. "Our members have mortgages, bills to pay, and children to take care of, and will not be able to make ends meet if there isn't a comprehensive government strategy in place. We will not let our members go without a roof over their heads," said Barret Armann, Unifor Local 7378 President. "Any bailout package to the industry must come to workers and their families first and include written commitments from the employer that ensures all of our members will return to work once these travel restrictions are lifted." Unifor has also asked that the federal government develop a long-term solution to support airlines such as Sunwing that will undoubtedly face challenges as service levels normalize once the pandemic is contained. In the case of the 2015 MERS outbreak, passenger traffic levels did not normalize for more than four months and during the SARS outbreak in 2003 passenger levels did not to return to normal levels for more than six months. With the current COVID-19 outbreak, it is estimated that passenger traffic may not return to current levels for more than a year. That is why bold action is needed now. Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy.

Emirates asks pilots to take unpaid leave, Qatar Airways lays off staff MANILA/DUBAI (Reuters) - Middle East airline Qatar Airways laid off about 200 Filipino staff in Doha this week and rival Emirates asked pilots to take unpaid leave as the coronavirus outbreak hammers demand for travel. The state-owned airlines have had to slash dozens of flights, which are crucial for their Gulf hubs that millions of passengers pass through each year. Philippine Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello told Reuters on Wednesday that the government was trying to ascertain the "real cause" behind the unexpected decision to lay off the workers. Qatar Airways did not respond to an emailed request for comment. The layoffs were reported earlier by ABS-CBN. It said the Filipino employees, including engineers and maintenance staff, were laid off on Tuesday and others had also lost their jobs. State-owned Qatar Airways had warned it would report its third consecutive loss this financial year, which ends this month, before the outbreak battered global travel demand. Dubai's Emirates has joined other airlines around world in asking pilots to take unpaid leave. "You are strongly encouraged to make use of this opportunity to volunteer for additional paid and unpaid leave," the airline said in an internal email to pilots seen by Reuters. Emirates, one of the world's biggest international airlines, did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. Tourism and aviation are vital to Dubai's economy, which does not have the vast oil wealth of some of its neighbors. Emirates Group, which employed over 100,000 people, including about 4,000 pilots as of March 2019, asked staff to take unpaid leave earlier this month, although pilots were not included in the request then. Emirates has told staff the coronavirus epidemic could be the biggest challenge it has faced in many years. The airline has frozen recruitment and continues to cut flights as the situation worsens globally. In response to a Reuters query as to whether the Dubai government would provide support to its state aviation entities, the state media office sent a statement from the emirate's airport operator. Dubai Airports said it was working with business partners to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus but could not comment further as commercial arrangements were confidential. Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways on Wednesday announced another raft of flight cancellations, including to India and Egypt.