BA to press ahead with cutting 12,000 jobs despite extension to furlough scheme to October
BRITISH Airways is still planning to cut up to 12,000 jobs despite the government’s extension of the furlough scheme, which is helping the airline to pay staff wages.
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns British Airways, has said that the plans have not changed.
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Earlier this week, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that he had extended the furlough scheme until the end of October.
Most of British Airways' 42,000 staff are currently being paid through the scheme.
But Mr Walsh wrote to Huw Merriman, the MP who is chair of Parliament’s transport committee, saying this did not change British Airways' position.
Mr Walsh said the government helping to pay wages would not compensate for “the reality of a structurally changed airline industry in a severely weakened global economy.
“I want to confirm therefore that we will not pause our consultations or put our plans on hold,” he wrote.
He added that the furlough scheme only offered “additional relief to our people and our business.”
It emerged at the end of last month that 12,000 British Airways workers jobs were at risk, including hundreds of pilots.
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Nine out of 10 flights have been grounded since the UK went into lockdown.
IAG said it would take “several years” for demand for air travel to return to 2019 levels.
In a letter to staff at the end of April, BA chief executive Alex Cruz wrote that the airline had been forced to take action.
“We are a strong, well-managed business that has faced into, and overcome, many crises in our hundred-year history.
“We must overcome this crisis ourselves, too.
“There is no government bailout standing by for BA and we cannot expect the taxpayer to offset salaries indefinitely.”
Mr Walsh had previously been urged by the transport committee to put plans for redundancies among the airline’s staff on hold.
Mr Merriman said the decision to pursue the job cuts was “very disappointing”.
“On the one hand, BA is happy to take taxpayers’ money from the furlough scheme which was designed to help companies avoid redundancies,” he said.
“Yet on the other, BA is ploughing ahead with a cull of their workforce and a lowering of terms and conditions.
“This is not what people would expect from our national flag carrier.
“BA’s loyal staff deserve better than to be treated like this.”
Earlier this week, British Airways said it could be forced to delay a planned return of flights in July due to new 14-day quarantine rules introduced by the government.
The new restrictions mean that anyone entering the country, either international visitors or Brits returning from holiday, will have to self-quarantine for two weeks.
British Airways declined to comment further on the job cuts.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned that airlines cannot restart flights if countries have UK-style quarantines in place.
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