Icelandair sacks all cabin crew, shifts their duties to pilots
Icelandair says it will sack all cabin crew and replace them with offduty pilots after negotiations on a collective-bargaining agreement broke down. It followed months of talks between the airline and the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association (Flugfreyjufelag Islands/FFI). In a statement, Icelandair said it will permanently terminate the employment of its current cabin crew members and permanently discontinue the employment relationship between the parties. "The company will instruct its pilots to assume responsibility for safety on board but services will continue to be at a minimum, as (they have been) since the impact of Covid-19 started," reports Reuters. READ MORE: * Iceland: Once overrun by tourists, now missing visitors * Frustrated by 2020? Record your scream and send it to Iceland * Airline Virgin Australia failed to give a pilot his rest and meal breaks Off-duty pilots will assume onboard safety from July 20. The FFI chairperson, Guolaug Liney Johannsdottir, said the airlines attitude was a disgrace. I have faith that the public does not take such contempt for employees silently and silently, Johannsdottir was quoted by The Independent. Like many airlines, Icelandair has suffered due to the downturn in air travel thanks to the coronavirus. Reuters reports that passengers levels are down from 419,000 in May 2019 to around 3100 in May this year. The country has largely escaped the worst of Covid-19, with 1930 confirmed cases and 10 deaths.