Japan Airlines Corp., Asia's largest carrier by sales, said Friday it reached an agreement with its largest union to cut workers' pay by 5 percent from October, helping the airline reduce labor costs as fuel prices soar.
The JAL Workers' Union agreed to the carrier's request Thursday, JAL spokesman Atsushi Abe said in Tokyo. The agreement covers 17,000 workers, the Nikkei newspaper reported earlier.
The pay cut is part of JAL's plan to save ¥10 billion in labor costs annually, following a ¥52 billion reduction in the last business year. The airline Thursday reported head count reductions helped narrow its first-quarter loss as it paid ¥101 billion for fuel, about 3.7 percent more than it did in the same quarter a year ago.
JAL plans to cut 400 jobs this business year to bring its workforce down to 48,800 by the end of March. The price of jet kerosene, which has risen 69 percent in the past year, traded at $140.25 a barrel in Singapore Thursday.
