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Major job losses planned for British Airways

International Airlines Group (IAG) has announced that in light of the COVID-19 pandemics impact on operations, a revised restructuring programme "may result in the redundancy of 12,000" British Airways (BA) employees.

The proposals remain subject to consultation with the relevant trade unions. This announcement on the IAG website follows on from news earlier this month that the airline had made a deal with unions in which BA took advantage of the UK's COVID-19 job retention scheme and furloughed 22,626 employees. In a statement at the time from Unite, which represents thousands of BA workers, the deal included no unpaid temporary lay-offs, no redundancies during the furlough period and a halt to a redundancy process which had already commenced. 

British Airways' chairman and CEO, Alex Cruz wrote an open letter to his colleagues in which he emphasised the challenge faced by the airline and said there could be "possible reductions in head count": "The scale of this challenge requires substantial change so we are in a competitive and resilient position, not just to address the immediate Covid-19 pandemic, but also to withstand any longer-term reductions in customer demand, economic shocks or other events that could affect us. However challenging this is, the longer we delay difficult decisions, the fewer options will be open to us." 

In regard to cashflow, which will affect the airline's ability to process customer refunds, Mr Cruz said: "Our very limited flying schedule means that revenues are not coming into our business. We are taking every possible action to conserve cash, which will help us to weather the storm in the short-term. We are working closely with partners and suppliers to discuss repayment terms; we are re-negotiating contracts where possible; and we are considering all the options for our current and future aircraft fleet. All of these actions alone are not enough."

The British Airline Pilots Association general secretary Brian Strutton described news of possible redundancies as "a bolt from the blue", adding that the association "will be fighting to save every single" job.

Despite the gloomy news for the airline, BA announced last week that cargo flights between China and London would be increased to 21 per week to transport essential cargo such as PPE supplies for the NHS.

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