JAZZ CUTING 270 jobs!!!

[look on your back]

This morning we issued a news release, provided below, announcing initiatives underway at Jazz to combat the effects of the rising price of fuel and the resulting capacity cuts by Air Canada. Please understand that securities laws require us to issue these types of announcements via press release in advance of employee messages.



I realize today’s news of reductions in our workforce and to our flying activity cause anxiety. We’ve all worked very hard to return our company to profitability. We are strong today and must work to keep it that way. However, it is very difficult for me to announce job losses.



The airline industry around the world is struggling with the rising cost of fuel and Jazz is not immune to the effects. As you know, Air Canada announced on June 17th that it’s reducing network domestic and transborder capacity by 2% and 13% respectively in the fourth quarter 2008 and first quarter 2009 schedules. As a result, Jazz’s flying will be reduced by approximately 5%.



For 2009, we’re forecasting our flying activity to be at 380,000 block hours. This year, we’ll operate between 400,000 and 405,000 block hours – so the reduction is approximately 5% to 6%. With the reduction in block hours comes a reduction in revenues, and we need to match our resources and our operation to our new income level.



Unfortunately, this means that we need to reduce our workforce by approximately 270 employees. This includes frontline, management and ATS employees. This decision affects many lives and I regret that there is no alternative. Rest assured that this decision was not reached lightly and that we’ve utilized every possible resource to ensure our projections are as accurate as possible given the uncertainty of our situation