Emirates Group is mulling massive job cuts as it seeks to reduce costs due the interruption of travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bloomberg reports that the world's largest long-haul carrier is considering sending about 30,000 people home as global aviation sees record lows.

The report also, citing unnamed sources, indicates that Emirates is considering accelerating the retirement of the A380 fleet -- of which it is the biggest operator.

Airlines across the world are cutting jobs to cope with the effects of the pandemic, which sparked a near-total shutdown of travel. Countries closed their airports and borders from foreign travel, directly affecting aviation.

The International Air Transport Association estimates that about 70% of global carrier capacity is idled and the industry stands to lose $314 billion in 2020 in ticket sales.

Emirates President Tim Clark earlier this month told Abu Dhabi-based The National that he expects demand for airline travel to be "tempered" for at least the next couple of years. He also called the pandemic a black swan event for the industry, referring to a rare occurrence with extreme impact.

Dubai's government said in March it would financially support the airline, which has also taken other cost cutting measures in a bid for survival. These include salary cuts and grounding of most of its passenger planes, as well as the deferment of the delivery of the last batch of the A380 superjumbos.

Even so, profit for March went down by more than 1.5 billion dirhams ($408 million) and the group lost over 3.4 billion dirhams in revenue that month, it said in its annual report published last week.

Source(s): Bloomberg