Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways has laid off employees this month, including cabin crew, after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to ground flights, says a report published in Gulf News.

An Etihad spokeswoman said there had been redundancies across several areas of the airline - "It is clear the demand for travel in the near future will be significantly reduced and as a result we must make difficult decisions to ensure Etihad will weather this storm."

The state-owned airline, which had 20,530 employees as of August 2019, grounded passenger flights in March and a month later said it had made a large number of staff redundant. Etihad, which has lost $5.6 billion since 2016, has slashed wages as global travel has come to a near standstill.

It has operated some passenger flights since March, mostly for foreigners leaving the UAE and said it plans to resume regular passenger flights in June.

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