German airline Lufthansa is to lay off between 2,000 to 4,000 employees, sources close to the company said today.
A spokesman for Lufthansa confirmed that the carrier was initiating measures immediately to shed workers but refused to say exactly how many would be affected.
He said the airline, which has a total workforce of 85,000, would initially try to lay off employees in all divisions who were still in their six-month trial period.
In order to avoid redundancies among cabin personnel, flight attendants would at first be put on short-time work. But if that did not prove sufficient, then cabin staff would also be laid off, he said.
The announcement comes after management and unions failed to reach agreement on a package of cost-cutting measures. It was the first time that Lufthansa would be shedding workers since the early 1990s.
