British Airways plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs due to the lasting impact of the new Coronavirus on its business, its parent company, the IAG group, announced on Tuesday.
The latter, which owns Iberia and Vueling, among other things, said in a press release that it had taken this decision given that it will take several years before air traffic returns to normal.
British Arways currently has 42,000 employees.
Immobilized aircraft
IAG takes action after warning that downsizing is inevitable due to this crisis that paralyzes air travel and immobilizes almost all aircraft on the ground.
The Hispanic-British group is not the only one to suffer, the Scandinavian airline SAS having announced earlier today that it will part with 5000 employees.
IAG specifies that it has initiated consultations with the unions on the dismissals. It recalls that 22,600 British Airways employees have been placed on short-time work, taking advantage of the mechanism for the government to cover 80% of wages.
Currently British Airways only operates a handful of flights from London Heathrow Airport, compared to an average of more than 300 a day in normal times.
For April and May, its capacities melted by 94%.
No help plan
“Over the past few weeks, the outlook for the aviation industry has deteriorated and we must act now,” said Alex Cruz, the boss of British Airways, in a letter to employees.
In the past few weeks, the outlook for the aviation industry has deteriorated and we must act now.
Alex Cruz, boss of British Airways
“We have to overcome this crisis ourselves. There is no government assistance plan for BA and we cannot expect the taxpayer to pay wages indefinitely, “he added.
Loans
The airline EasyJet has obtained a loan of 600 million pounds from the public authorities while Virgin Atlantic urges the government to support it, while its founder Richard Branson is looking for funds to save his company.
IAG took the opportunity to give some figures on its financial results for the first quarter, the details of which will be revealed on May 7.
Its turnover plunged 13% to 4.6 billion euros over the period from January to March which only takes into account the start of confinement in Europe.
The group recorded an operating loss excluding exceptional items of 535 million euros, against a profit of 135 million a year earlier.
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