KLM Pilots Agree to Pay Cuts in Support of Government Bailout Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to present a cloudy future for the air travel industry, many pilots for the Dutch airline KLM have agreed to take pay cuts in an effort to end a deadlock for a government bailout.
The Minister of Finance of the Netherlands had paused a 3.4 billion-euro bailout plan because a portion of the airline’s 30,000 employees had not agreed to a pay cut stipulation.
“It’s good that this hurdle has been cleared,” said Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra.
The value of the bailout, which is expected to cover five years, equates to $3.96 billion. The plan was announced in June, with the government calling for the airline to reduce its costs by 15%, among other requirements.
Hoekstra had paused the aid package on Saturday, referring to the holdout by some pilots regarding the pay cuts as “very disappointing and risky.”
Last week, KLM announced a loss of 234 million euros, which is about $273 million, during the third quarter.
“Without this loan, KLM will not get through this difficult time,” the airline’s CEO, Pieter Elbers, said at the time. “This makes this impasse extremely worrying.”
There have been more than 370,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Netherlands, and more than 7,500 deaths.
With News Wire Services
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