Bahrain Air staff that lost their jobs when the Gulf state’s second airline folded last month are in line for a combined BHD2.2m (US$5.8m) payout, according to Gulf Daily News.
The Bahrain-based newspaper quoted unionists as saying that employees at the carrier, which went into voluntary redundancy in February, could expect to start receiving severance packages on Monday and Tuesday.
Payouts to Bahrain’s Air 345 employees range from BHD700 to BHD140,000, the newspaper said.
Abdull Raoof, chairman of the Bahrain Air Trade Union, told Gulf Daily News that unionists had unsuccessfully sought an additional one month’s salary for each employee for every year they had worked.
Following the airline’s closure, local media reported that Bahrain Air staff had seen their credit cards frozen and denied access to personal bank accounts in order to prevent them running up debts and leaving the country.
Bahrain Air suspended all operations last month after accruing government debts of more than BHD17m.
Gulf Air, Bahrain’s incumbent carrier, has also been struggling amid the impact of political unrest in the country.
The carrier has laid off 15 percent of its staff and cut four of its loss-making routes since January as part of its restructuring.
The loss-making carrier, which announced its restructuring in December, said the measures had so far helped reduced its overall costs by over 34 percent.
Gulf Air, which has suffered amid stiff competition from nearby Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, said it remains on track to achieve overall cost savings of 24 percent by the end of the year.
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