British Airways will make up to 12,000 workers redundant as owners IAG say it will take airline years to recover from coronavirus crisis
- Madrid-based IAG says portion of BA’s 45,000 staff now face redundancy
- News of redundancies comes weeks after owners aced £300mn payout scheme
- British Airways previously axed all flights in and out of Gatwick and London City
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Thousands of British Airways workers look set to lose their jobs as its owners IAG announce redundancies on Tuesday afternoon.
Airline companies have been struggling to run as the coronavirus lockdown grounds planes around the world. BA had already started struggling after it furloughed more than half of its 45,000 workers.
In a statement, IAG said: “In light of the impact of Covid-19 on current operations and the expectation that the recovery of passenger demand to 2019 levels will take several years, British Airways is formally notifying its trade unions about a proposed restructuring and redundancy programme.
British Airways’ owners will make up to 12,000 staff redundant as airline company’s struggle to cope with a drop in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic
These British Airway planes are parked up at Gatwick after the airline company opted to only fly out of Heathrow during the Covid-19 crisis
Willie Walsh, CEO of IAG, at British Airways’ headquarters in Hammondsworth, was previously chief exec of BA and Aer Lingus
“The proposals remain subject to consultation but it is likely that they will affect most of British Airways’ employees and may result in the redundancy of up to 12,000 of them.
“As previously announced, British Airways has availed itself of the UK’s Covid-19 job retention scheme and furloughed 22,626 employees in April.”
News that thousands of people will lose their jobs comes weeks after the airline company’s Spanish owners axed a controversial £300million payout to shareholders earlier this month.
Madrid-based International Airlines Group proposed a dividend of around 17p per share in February, when the ravages of the killer virus on society and the global economy were already apparent.
But chief financial officer Stephen Gunning said the cash would instead be used to keep the company going through the virus crisis.
British Airways planes have been left parked at Bournemouth Airport after the airline suffered a massive fall in demand due to the coronavirus crisis and now plans to furlough 36,000 staff has emerged
One former manager in BA’s finance team told MailOnline today: ‘Don’t blame the virus. This company has been mismanaged for years. IAG have simply sucked the life out of it’.
Other airline companies have felt the strain of internationally travel all but grounding to a halt during the global pandemic.
Flybe went into administration in March, while Sir Richard Brnason is reportedly looking for an investor for Virgin Atlantic.
He failed to secure a government bailout with his £80 million private island as collateral, reports indicate.
The billionaire’s pursuit of a £500million taxpayer intervention has effectively been shelved and the airline is concentrating on getting new backing from private investors, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Around 50 possible backers are said to have inquired about the company – with suitors presented with options to inject debt, equity or convertible loans, which could potentially leave face of the brand Sir Richard with no residual stake.
‘All options’ were said to remain on the table after the investment bank hired by Virgin Atlantic, Houlihan Lokey, reportedly sounded out more than 100 possible financial institutions.
Potential investors are said to include Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Wall Street investor Cerberus Capital Management.