Emirates airline confirmed on Wednesday it has asked cabin crew staff to take unpaid leave as the economic impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc in the aviation industry.

Both Emirates airline and Etihad Airways have gone through separate rounds of redundancies since the carriers were forced to ground passenger services in March as a result of movement restrictions and border closures aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.

Emirates laid off over a thousand employees back in June, including 700 cabin crew and 600 pilots, most of whom flew the superjumbo Airbus A380 or were in training for type-rating the aircraft.

Despite being set to reopen over 50 percent of its pre-Covid routes in September, a spokesperson confirmed the latest staff request.

The airline told Arabian Business: “We can confirm that we had offered cabin crew the opportunity to apply for voluntary unpaid leave.”

It is unclear how long this will be, although reports from news agency Reuters suggest it is between one and three months. Emirates did not comment on reports of further redundancies.

The carrier’s chief operating officer Adel al Redha said last week that the carrier expects to return to full capacity by summer 2021.

Before the crisis hit, Emirates employed some 60,000 staff, including 4,300 pilots and nearly 22,000 cabin crew, according to its annual report.

Reuters reported that Etihad crew have been offered unpaid leave, of between ten days to six months, from September 16, citing an internal memo as the source.

In March, the airline had announced a temporary reduction of basic salaries for the month of April for all staff, including executives, between 25 to 50 per cent. This was then extended in June to run through to September.

While in May, the airline said that redundancies would be made “across several sectors”.