British carrier Flybe said it would cut about 300 jobs, or about 10 percent of its UK workforce, joining other European airlines that have cut costs and headcount to cope with lower spending on air travel amid the eurozone debt crisis.The job cuts include a 20 percent reduction in management posts and about 10 percent of overhead and production roles, Flybe, Europe's largest regional airline, said.Several European carriers including SAS, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Iberia have already cut thousands of jobs.Flybe expects its UK business, which swung to a pre-tax loss of GBP£2.2 million (USD$3.49 million) in fiscal year 2012, to break even in the fiscal year ending March 2014.Flybe UK's number of passengers rose 3 percent to 1.7 million in the third quarter. But passenger revenue per seat was largely flat at GBP£47.39.The UK business brought in about 96 percent of group revenue last year and serves over 70 airports in the UK and several European countries. It has a joint venture with Finnair and contract flying arrangements with Brussels Airlines and Olympic Air.Flybe said it did not expect to close any of its 13 UK operational bases but was implementing cost reduction plans with suppliers such as airports and maintenance providers, rolling out fuel efficiency programmes and expanding automation at the check-in process."Persistent losses were unsustainable and needed tackling in our view... however, much will depend on the delivery of these targets and it is obviously still early days," Oriel Securities' Edward Stanford said.Flybe estimated the job cuts to result in restructuring costs of between GBP£10 million and GBP£12 million (USD$15.9 million to USD$19 million), with the majority to be recorded in the current fiscal year that ends on March 31.It reiterated its forecast of year-on-year revenue growth of up to 2 percent. Source: Reuters
Gravity always wins!