Meridiana (Olbia) management has agreed to defer plans to cut up to 1'600 jobs until October following a meeting between airline representatives, trade unionists and government officials in Rome this week.
The Italian carrier said in a statement that the process of downsizing had been delayed until October 21 to allow for additional dialogue between the parties concerned.
"During this period, a series of meetings have been scheduled aimed at reaching an agreement on the best way forward concerning the redundancies, without prejudice to the primary objective of company's relaunch," it said.
The loss-making carrier embarked on a restructuring programme in 2013 among whose objectives are the retirement of its Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) fleet, the termination of loss-making routes, and the downsizing of the workforce to a size commensurate to its scale of operations.
Meanwhile, Chief Commercial Officer Andrea Andorno has dismissed claims the airline is interested in a tie-up with Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) stating Meridiana's biggest concern at present, is the successful completion of its restructuring programme.
