News
Jazz Air cutting 270 workers as costly fuel forces capacity reduction

July 3, 2008, Halifax – Jazz Air is cutting 270 employees as the
regional airline operator reduces capacity by five per cent.

The Jazz reduction announced Thursday follows the mid-June move
by Air Canada, from which Jazz was spun off and which buys most of
its fleet capacity, to cut its flying by seven per cent with the
loss of 2,000 jobs.

“The decrease in Air Canada's need for Jazz's services
necessitates a reduction in staff of approximately 270 Jazz
employees,'' the regional operator stated.

Jazz CEO Joseph Randell added that “every effort is being made
to mitigate these job losses, and we hope this downturn in our
industry's cycle ends soon. We are in a period of great uncertainty
and cannot predict where the price of fuel is going.''

Jazz has already made fuel-saving changes and recently froze
hiring and non-critical overtime. It also has announced plans to
close its Hamilton operation at the end of July, eliminating 10
daily flights and 14 jobs at the Hamilton airport.

In Thursday's announcement, Jazz commented that “in addition to
soaring fuel prices, airlines in Canada must also contend with
federal and provincial fuel excise taxes, security fees, Nav Canada
fees and airport charges that rank amongst the most expensive in the
world. It is important to recognize the severity of the situation
facing the entire aviation industry and ultimately our
communities.''

In early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, Jazz
Air units fell 21 cents to $5.02, a drop of four per cent.