Belair Airlines (Zurich) is set to undergo restructuring amid concerns at parent Air Berlin (1991) (Berlin Tegel) that the airline is failing to perform financially. Belair operates scheduled passenger service on behalf of Air Berlin and leisure charters for third parties.

Quoting internal company documents, Austrian Aviation Net reports airline staff are set to undergo cuts in terms of numbers with those remaining to see salary cuts and a reduction in their fringe benefits such as company cars and free flights.

With five captains out of the current 43 set to be let go alongside three of the airline's 37 first officers, Belair then intends to enforce wage cuts with pilots' salaries to be reduced 15%, flight attendants and ground crew 10%, and management 20%.

Furthermore, the number of "on" days that staff will work will be extended from 5 days to 6.

The report claims that Belair has been threatened with closure should it fail to make the EUR8million in requisite employee wage-savings.

Belair's maket niche is set to come under even greater pressure with the launch of Lufthansa's new Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf) LCC initiative and Germania's joint venture with tour operator Hotelplan next year.