Russian airline axes 44.3pc of employees
Moscow : UTair, Russia’s third-largest airline, cut the number of its employees by 44.3 per cent year-on-year in March to 4,171 people, according to company’s quarterly report.
The company is experiencing economic difficulties as the ruble’s slump raises operating costs and raises the cost of trips abroad for Russian tourists.
The ruble has fallen around 30 per cent to the US dollar since the beginning of last year, as Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and a drop in the price of oil, the country’s top export, strangle investment.
The carrier spent 1.11 billion rubles (US$22.4 million) on wages in the first three months of the year, or 41.3 per cent less than during the same period last year, according to the report. Earlier in April UTair’s press office announced that the company cut 40 per cent of its fleet, from 115 to 71 planes.
