Foreign Carrier Furloughs
 

Sorry if this should have been posted elsewhere, but I had plenty of time on my hands this morning and I ended up looking at the International page of the Airline Profiles. With only five carriers listed, it was a small sample, but I noticed none of those carriers listed any furloughs. I found that interesting.

Does anyone have a good guess as to why some of those carriers have not been forced to furlough? My guess is it's due to the fact they are all government subsidised, but who knows? Does anyone have information on the European carriers like British Airways, Air France, Iberia, or Lufthansa?

Like I said, I would guess many of the carriers on the International page are subsidised by governments so that hase reduced the need for furloughs, but I would be very interested to see what the story is in Europe. By all accounts, their economies are in worse shape than the US and it would be interesting to see where they stand.

BA announced 300 furloughs iirc.

I also believe Cathay is forcing time off without pay, and Leaves of absence. I dont know if any furloughs have been formally announced, but I wouldnt be surprised.

One problem might be that they don't normally use the word "furlough". Instead, you become "redundant".

Yes, many carriers are given subsidies. However, unlike in the U.S. where at the drop of a dime, carriers furlough, it seems to me that overseas companies try their hardest to avoid furloughs or redundancies. In Cathay's case, they asked for unpaid leave from all staff. There was no requirement to take it but who knows what will happen if you didn't. I believe 92% of the flight crew's took it. Also, CX has to pay out 6 months salary if they furlough which does make it cost prohibitive. I don't know if other carriers have this or not, but I'm glad I'm at a company that is trying to do a little something extra before just 'slashing and burning'. They may in the future, but for now they are not.