The Australian boss of Skywest has confirmed 18 redundancies have been made as part of measures to make the regional airline more efficient and streamlined.
Chief executive Jason Bitter told WA Business News the redundancies were across the board, and no more would take place, leaving some 800 staff working for the airline.
He added it was a “coincidence” the redundancies occurred in the same week that Virgin Australia was given the all clear by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to acquire Skywest.
The acquisition has been valued at $98 million, and still needs approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board, Singapore’s High Court and Skywest shareholders.
Virgin hopes the Skywest takeover will give it a slice of the lucrative fly-in, fly-out market.
Shares in Skywest were down 0.3c to 44.2c at 1233 AWST.
