BA Argentine staff redundencies
 

Arrived this morning in Buenos Aires on the BA245 overnight direct service from Heathrow. During the taxi to the stand after landing an announcement in Spanish was made regarding the closing of the local Argentine BA facility and that for some members of the cabin crew who were Argentine this was their last flight with BA. Lots of applause from the Argentine passengers.


Can I assume this is another of Senior Cruz's cost cutting schemes?

I suspect a part of this package >>> http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...und-staff.html

Very sad for the individuals concerned, and of course for BA's reputation [if it still has one worth losing].

Sad times

I wonder if the service will be next to get the axe? The high rate of inflation plus way too much union power here must make it an expensive route to operate I would have thought.

Did you bring some warm clothing...it's baltic today. :D

Why that would be? Inflation in ARS shouldn't affect too much, I believe all services in EZE are paid in USD. And since they got rid of all the local (:mad:) employees, they don't have to deal with the unions anymore.
It always was a good route for BA, they could charge whatever they want since they don't have any direct competitions, although with Norwegian starting LGW-EZE next year, this might change.

I doubt that the Argentinian-based Cabin Crew are US Ground Staff....

But probably part of the same initiative to cut costs which apparently is about converting BA into some kind of low cost airline.

...but without the same low long haul prices.

Most likely the route will be moving to MF once the base is close.

Poorly phrased on my part. Insert "an extension of the initiative in the USA" ;)

Well they have to do something to make amends for loosing BA so much money in one of their previous cost cutting decision.

Seems an odd way to cut costs given the lower salaries in Argentina and the lack of bilingual people willing to work for the salaries BA is willing to offer in the UK. I suppose the cost of HR and other support staff in Argentina.

Errrr are you sure about that? If there's a general strike (as there has been recently, HIDDY might know how many exactly), there's no point BA sending an aircraft down if there's no one to greet it or (un)load it. Just because you don't employ your own staff doesn't mean you don't have union issues.

CIHY mentioned this multiple times on threads a few months back but no one bit. I guess now they've gone it might be noticed a bit more. Very sad for those guys, there weren't many of them and local passengers loved having them on board. I guess Sr Cruz could be planning to fill the airline with (even more) Spanish staff, but I guess we'll find out.

Despite the unions having a big say on how most things run here the general strikes didn't really affect international services....maybe they were given a backhander? :D

It would be interesting to know whether the Argentine based crew were paid the same as LHR based crew or not especially with the way inflation is here.....petrol is more expensive here than in the UK as are many other everyday items. Prices here has certainly affected tourism which will have had a knock on effect on pax numbers.

Strikes in Buenos Aries?

The last time this happened a beleagured Tory PM sent the task force to the Falklands.....