Astar lays off two-thirds of pilots

ASTAR Air Cargo will lay off over two-thirds – 303 – of its pilots between 6 March and 1 July. This will bring its current pilot workforce down from 456 to 153.Astar (formerly DHL Airways) is now based out of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky international airport, which is where the majority of the affected pilots are based.The carrier began running into difficulty when one of its two major clients – DHL Express – closed its freight hub at the nearby Wilmington, Ohio airpark with the loss of 8,000 jobs.Vice-president Rob Miller said at DHL’s scaling down of operations “has significantly reduced its airlift requirements”.