Trainees and new recruits among the first victims of Emirates' job cull

Some, have told Arabian Aerospace, they were still in type-rating training having joined from other airlines and paid bonds – up to $40,000 – to leave in order to join the elite airline, just weeks before the pandemic hit the Gulf.

The pilots still on a “probationary period” were told they were entitled to seven days notice payment but in the circumstances the airline would pay 14 days compensation. Visas are being extended until repatriation flights become available.

It is believed many were being trained to join the A380 fleet. Earlier this month Bloomberg and Arabian Aerospace reported that the airlines was considering cancelling orders for some of its currently undelivered A380s and scrapping more than 40 others. Bloomburg suggested that total job losses could be in the region of 30,000.

In a statement the carrier said: "The current pandemic has impacted many industries around the world and although we have endeavoured to sustain the current family as is, we reviewed all possible scenarios in order to sustain our business operations, but have come to the conclusion that we unfortunately have to say goodbye to a few of the wonderful people that worked with us."

Emirates would not say how many redundancies or which departments would be affected. It did go on to say it does not "view this lightly" and will work with impacted employees to ensure they are treated "with fairness and respect."

Emirates has already begun operating scheduled flight services to nine destinations around the world from May 21, including London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne.