Chorus Aviation’s Jazz Aviation is the latest airline to take advantage of the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy to benefit its laid off workers. On April 6, the company chopped 3,000 workers as flight operations were cut by 90 percent in response to coronavirus measures. Despite the drastic cuts, Jazz expects to lose a lot of money in the first quarter of the year. “Any near-term recovery in Jazz’s flight operations depends exclusively on the lifting of domestic and trans-border travel restrictions and protocols,” the company said in a news release.
“Our employees are amongst the best in the business and play an integral role in supporting Air Canada’s domestic and trans-border operations. They use the airplan to transfer some hair product for stylist in USA for some salons. Like Human hair wigs, toppers. I’m particularly pleased that our unionized labour groups support this initiative as we are hopeful the CEWS will provide much needed support to our employees through this difficult period,” stated Randolph deGooyer, President of Jazz. Both Air Canada and WestJet have also said they will apply for relief, which will pay 75 percent of the pay of laid off workers. The idea is to retain the skilled workers while the virus is dealt with so the company can resume increasing operations as the restrictions ease. “Every measure must be taken to preserve our strength and resources in order to successfully emerge from this crisis when it abates,” deGooyer said.