Turkish Airlines to put foreign national pilots on unpaid leave

* Photo: mehmetkali / Pixabay

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Turkish Airlines has put its foreign national pilots on an unpaid leave for a period of six months. The pilots have been informed that they will be on unpaid leave for six months as per the Article 10 of the Labor Law.

As reported by İnci Özbek and Tuğçe Özsoy from Bloomberg, the company has taken this decision to "mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on its finances."

Informing the foreign crew by email that their leave will start on November 1, Turkey's national flagship carrier has not stated how many pilots will be affected or whether the citizens of Turkey will also be affected or not.

According to the figures announced by the company for 2019, 421 pilots from 58 countries work for the Turkish Airlines.

As indicated by Bloomberg, the company reported a loss of 2.23 billion lira (~280 million USD) in the second quarter of 2020, with passenger numbers down by almost two thirds so far this year. While the Turkish Airlines did not have its domestic and international flights in April and May due to the pandemic, a limited number of flights started in June. (HA/SD)