LOT Airline Strikes Deal with Unions, Cuts Up to 300 Jobs

Jan. 20—WARSAW — Poland's flagship airline LOT will cut up to 300 jobs to adjust to the new reality posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the firm said on Wednesday in a statement carried by PAP agency.

The lay-offs have been agreed upon with all of LOT's trade unions, the firm said. Around 150 redundancies will take place in the first half of 2021, while another 150 affected employees will leave the firm within the next two years as they acquire the right to pensions.

Cutting employment is a requirement of the post-Covid-19 market environment as well as the state aid scheme approved by the European Commission, the firm said.

In mid-December, the commission approved state aid of 650 million euros (788 million dollars) in total for the struggling airline, including a capital injection, but also some 400 million euros in credit at lowered interest rates.

LOT has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and related travel curbs, similarly to other airlines.

The airline recently announced it expected to transport 2 million passengers in 2021, as opposed to 12 million passengers projected before the pandemic. In 2019, LOT flew 10 million passengers.

In mid-April LOT stepped back from a planned takeover of German airline Condor, as its parent company PGL cancelled the deal after the pandemic broke out.

___

(c)2021 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)

Visit Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) at www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.