American Airlines has made the announcement today that it will lay off 19,000 workers on October 1, in addition to thousands more who left the company or agreed to voluntary furloughs, unless Congress offers more assistance.

The airline disclosed this in a regulatory filing where it said that “Approximately 19,000 of our team members will be involuntarily furloughed or separated from the company on October 1,” and maintained that the slashed are needed because flights are yet to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The company however said that the job losses could be controlled if Congress extends a program under the CARES Act rescue package that helped struggling airlines due to the coronavirus pandemic to sustain their staff through the end of September.