American Airlines is preparing to send notices of potential furloughs, as well as early retirement packages to encourage voluntary departures, to its workers later this week, two people familiar with the matter said.

American has already said it expects to have 20,000 more employees than it needs to operate its schedule in the fall as demand that has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic remains depressed.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Chris Reese)