ABOUT 170 pilots and more than 100 crew staff are expected to be laid off in AirAsia Group Bhd’s (AAGB) latest restructuring exercise, sources told The Malaysian Insight.

They said jobs in the group’s foreign subsidiaries are likely to face the chopping board first, followed by local staff, as part of its resizing exercise.

Sources also said town-hall sessions have been going on since this morning, with a session involving pilots said to have taken place earlier today.

The rest will be notified by email today and tomorrow, a source said.

Overall, in both foreign and local airline units, some 3,000 jobs are expected to be affected. The briefing is expected to take place this afternoon.

“Plenty of chops are expected from AirAsia X,” the source said, referring to the budget airline group’s long-haul arm.

Business newspaper Focus Malaysia reported earlier that AAGB would lay off staff as part of a restructuring plan to survive the Covid-19 crisis.

The report, quoting an internal memo, said the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent movement restrictions had forced the airline to make “fundamental changes” to the organisation and structure of its workforce, including headcount.

The immediate result would be having “to part” with a “number of our teammates from across the group”, the memo read.

AAGB reported a net loss of RM303.72 million for the financial year ended December 31, 2019, against a net profit of RM1.97 billion the previous year.

The Star reported today that AAGB is currently in talks to sell a 10% stake to South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Corp, by way of private placement of RM1 per share.

The deal could fetch the airline group an estimated RM334.2 million. – June 4, 2020.