Dutch airline company KLM is to cut its capacity by a further 10 per cent in reaction to reduced passenger numbers as a result of the US attacks.
The 10 per cent reduction follows the announcement on September 19th it would reduce its capacity by 5 per cent.
According to a statement issued by KLM this morning, the cuts will affect 2,500 jobs, mainly in The Netherlands, and a further 12,000 workers are expected to be put on short-time. KLM has also asked unions and employees to accept a substantial pay cuts.
The cuts take effect on October 29th and will be achieved by deploying smaller aircraft and reducing flight frequency on some routes.
North Atlantic routes will suffer the brunt of the cuts with the number of weekly flights jointly operated by KLM and Northwest Airlines to drop from the September figure of 188 to 163 at the end of October. Scheduled flights on Middle Eastern routes will also be reduced.
European services will also be reduced by 6 per cent, with the withdrawal of services to Malmo and frequencies reduced on services between Amsterdam and cities including Paris, Milan, Madrid, Munich, Gothenburg and Helsinki.
KLM’s weekly round-trip flights to the Asia-Pacific region will be cut from 58 to 53.
The airline has refused to rule out more cuts.