Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas) has reached an agreement with its employee unions which allows for the cutting of a maximum of 955 workers. Of that number, 715 are ground personnel, 170 cabin crew and 70 pilots, reports Europa Press.

The job cuts will take the form of early retirement and voluntary redundancies, as well as reductions of hours, and are set to occur between September 22 and December 31, 2019. As at end-2016, the IAG International Airlines Group-owned Iberia had a total of 15,809 employees with cuts representing just over 6% of that workforce.

As Iberia posted a 2016 total operating profit of EUR620 million (USD740 million), the cuts are being made for "technical, organisational and productive reasons". Approximately 4,500 jobs have been slashed from the airline in two rounds since 2013.