RwandAir Announces Major Salary Cuts as COVID-19 Continues to Bite
Rwanda’s national carrier, RwandAir has started new stringent measures meant to cut operational costs a month after suspending all its commercial flights.
The airline initially announced on March 20, 2020, that it was grounding all its aircraft for 30 days as one of the measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). But the pandemic has ensured that nations around the world extend the shutdown as the number of Covid-19 positive cases rose to more than 2.9 million.
This means more losses for the aviation industry and could ultimately force some carriers out of business.
To cut costs, RwandAir announced salary cuts ranging between 8 percent for the least paid employees to 65 percent for the highest-paid staff.
It was also decided that the chief executive officer (CEO) and deputy plus all directors forfeit their net salary for April.
The airline also announced an extension of the suspension of pilot employment contracts. The statement also indicated that the airline’s management had also resolved to indefinitely suspend non-essential contracts.
“Management has come to a difficult but necessary conclusion that to maintain the current workforce, more stringent measures are required. These we trust you will agree are necessary and urgent in order to avoid suspending all employment contracts from this month due to the pandemic,” the statement reads in part.
