Eastar Jet Plans to Lay Off 640 Employees... Notification Expected Today

On the 23rd, when Jeju Air announced the termination of the stock purchase agreement for acquiring management rights of Eastar Jet, effectively giving up the acquisition, a sense of silence prevailed at Eastar Jet's headquarters in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] Eastar Jet, which is pursuing a resale, has decided to lay off 640 employees. This follows financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of a merger and acquisition (M&A) with Jeju Air.

According to industry sources on the 7th, Eastar Jet plans to individually notify the layoff targets through groupware and other means this afternoon. The layoffs are scheduled to take effect on the 14th of next month.

The layoff targets include most job categories such as flight crew (captains, first officers), flight dispatchers, cabin crew, and general staff. After reducing the fleet, the company plans to retain about 72 to 150 employees per job category to match the six aircraft it will keep, and lay off the rest.

However, maintenance personnel are excluded from this restructuring. An industry official stated, "According to government guidelines, maintenance staff will be maintained in numbers corresponding to the current fleet size," adding, "If further fleet reduction becomes a reality, additional adjustments may be possible."

Meanwhile, Eastar Jet is currently undergoing the resale process. Regarding this, Eastar Jet stated, "Currently, several companies besides private equity funds have shown interest in acquisition. We plan to select a preferred bidder by the end of this month and proceed with the M&A next month."