JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) will avoid mass layoffs of staff after September 30, 2020, thanks to a high participation rate in its voluntary redundancy programmes, Chief People Officer Mike Elliott said in an internal memo seen by PaxEx.aero.

The airline said it had reached an accord with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) about changes to a collective labour agreement which would allow avoiding furloughs in return for short-term changes to the agreement. The no-furlough policy will be in place through May 2021.

Among other groups of employees, the airline said that most have met their targets for voluntary buy-outs. Ahead of the next round of voluntary bids from cabin crew which ends on July 9, JetBlue said that so far, interest from the staff has been "healthy" and on the way to meeting its stipulated target.

However, the airline said it did not achieve the voluntary opt-out targets for support centre workers and "some salaried crewmembers" and would "review the applications" to plot the way forward.

In an internal message seen by ch-aviation, JetBlue has also clarified the threshold parameters for airports where it would outsource ground operations. In general, the airline plans to outsource operations at airports where it has 4 or less daily flights for airport operations and 10 or less for ground operations. Airports with "split operations" (i.e. a gap of 8 hours or more between flights), with high staff attrition rate, and with entirely part-time employees will be considered for outsourcing.

As a recipient of Payroll Support funds under the federal CARES Act, JetBlue is banned from laying staff off until September 30, 2020, but free to do so afterwards, once the federal grants are no longer disbursed.