United Airlines Holdings plans to cut at least 3,400 management and administrative positions in October as the pandemic squeezes air travel demand. The company has told pilots to brace for changes as well, according to the memos seen by a UK-based media.

United is among the US airlines that have accepted US government payroll aid that bans job or pay cuts before Sept 30. However, United and other carriers have warned that demand is unlikely to recover to pre-crisis levels by that date, forcing them to shrink in the fall.

The United memos are the first indication of just how much major airlines might downsize due to the health crisis.

"We have to acknowledge that there will be serious consequences to our company if we don't continue to take strong and decisive action, which includes making decisions that none of us ever wanted or expected to make," Kate Gebo, Executive Vice President human resources and labor relations, said in the memo to some 11,500 management and administrative employees.

Affected employees will be notified in mid to late July for an Oct 1 effective date, she said, while encouraging employees to consider a voluntary separation before that date.

In a separate memo seen by media, pilots were told to prepare for a "displacement" that will affect roughly 30 percent of roughly 12,250 pilots.

United released the following statement to media:

“Travel demand is essentially zero for the foreseeable future and, even with federal assistance that covers a portion of our payroll expense through September 30, we anticipate spending billions of dollars more than we take in for the next several months while continuing to employ 100 percent of our workforce. That’s not sustainable for any company. And that’s why we are doing everything we can to reduce costs in the near-term so we can bounce back quickly when demand starts to return and help ensure our company and the jobs it supports will be here when customers are flying again.”

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