SHT88T

Absolutely terrible news and must be gut wrenching for all BA staff at the moment. Good luck to anyone affected by this.

crazy8534

A very sad day for the 1 in 4 BA staff who will be made redundant.

I think the writing was on the wall. Also sad although not surprising to hear that BA are hedged on the wrong side of oil prices.

Let’s hope BA can survive.

navylad

Thanks, do you have a source for this. It would be incredible considering the lag between peaks between us and other countries is only a matter of a few weeks, and is before the expected peaks on other countries. Obviously such a view will alarm many with future flights booked so I think it is really important we are clear, which I’m sure is something you’d hope too.

Sorry Mods for a slight OT discussion, feel free to move comments to a separate thread if required.

lcylocal

It was 90 days. And was cut in 2013. Given the furlough scheme has two months to run I suspect we will see more notices over then next fortnight from big employers unless there is a further extension.

There has been some talk of sector specific support lasting beyond the general job retention scheme, and hopefully that is something that may be able to stave some of these redundancies off. If BA do lose the full 12,000, this is a quarter of the workforce, and will inevitably make the recovery slower than it might otherwise be.

Anyway - thoughts with all those BA staff affected.

ratechaser

My bank's CEO today made a point that they spent $400 million on travel expenses last year and what remote working has demonstrated is that there's no need to spend nearly that much in future.

So yes, the corporate travel market is going to fundamentally change in the post-Covid world...

bhbloke

Nothing is clear yet.

The Spanish Govt were hoping to open the beaches for the summer season, but have already indicated that they would look at which countries they would allow into Spain. UK was on their high risk list and would likely be excluded.

paulaf

There are a few articles in the tabloids that Cyprus and the Balearics may "ban" UK tourists until the end of the year whereas other visitors would be welcome possibly from July, I too was very annoyed to read that as our lockdown was only a little later yet they seem to think it will take us months longer to control it. Let's hope they revise their thinking in a month or so when the situation here improves or BA will suffer even more.

baileysserpant

totally agree, the penny is dropping in a lot of big businesses including the one I work for. That aside my thoughts are with all the staff that could be impacted by this move.

lcylocal

I'm worried this strays a little off topic for this thread, so apologies. I will leave providing a source to the original poster.

But it is probably correct to say that there is some evidence that the UK's reputation is struggling internationally over this. Some of the excess deaths figures look particularly bad for England; international media has been giving the UK quite a kicking over issues like herd immunity and the speed of the lockdown, as well as non-participation in the EU schemes; and Heathrow is clearly concerned about what PHE's recommendations for airports is having on Heathrow's reputation.

All of this may or may not be fair. And I think we won't really know whether this will feed through to other countries policies towards the UK until it actually happens. But if I were BA or the UK I would definitely be thinking that some of the warning lights are flashing on this.

13901

I'm surprised that IAG is openly suggesting that 1 in 3 BA employees could lose their jobs but nothing with regards to Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling or LEVEL.

happeemonkee

https://mediacentre.britishairways.c...6/News-1/12272

Letter to colleagues from Alex Cruz, Chairman and CEO at British Airways

Yesterday, British Airways flew just a handful of aircraft out of Heathrow. On a normal day we would fly more than 300. What we are facing as an airline, like so many other businesses up and down the country, is that there is no ‘normal’ any longer.

The global aviation body, IATA, has said that the industry has never seen a downturn this deep before, and that full year industry passenger revenues could plummet 55% compared to 2019, while traffic falls 48%.  Many airlines have grounded all of their planes. Sadly, we will see some airlines go out of business with the resulting job losses.

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.  

In the last few weeks, the outlook for the aviation industry has worsened further and we must take action now. 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. Any money we borrow now will only be short-term and will not address the longer-term challenges we will face.

We do not know when countries will reopen their borders or when the lockdowns will lift, and so we have to reimagine and reshape our airline and create a new future for our people, our customers and the destinations we serve. We have informed the Government and the Trade Unions of our proposals to consult over a number of changes, including possible reductions in headcount. We will begin a period of consultation, during which we will work with the Trade Unions to protect as many jobs as possible. Your views matter and we will listen to all practical proposals.

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.

I want to pay tribute to the thousands of British Airways colleagues who are playing a vital role in the global response to the Covid-19 crisis. Whether you are supporting our repatriation flights or the transport of essential cargo; or one of the hundreds of colleagues volunteering with organisations such as the NHS, you have my sincere respect and thanks.

This has been a difficult message to write and one I never thought I would need to send. I know how tight-knit the BA family is, and how concerned you will be, not just for yourself but for your colleagues, too. We must act decisively now to ensure that British Airways has a strong future and continues connecting Britain with the world, and the world with Britain. 

Thank you.

Alex

cauchy

Pure speculation, but I imagine all of the Worldwide and Euro Fleets will be made redundant.

Clearly BA is an awful position financially and really unpleasant decisions might be unavoidable. But I also wonder if BA is going to be opportunistic and use this as a chance to cut costs. If BA takes things too far, then hopefully the government could threaten to re-introduce the "use it or lose it" slots rule to ensure that companies that get government support (maybe not in cash, but in kinder regulations) behave responsibly.

paulaf

Agree, all the forums I read basically say the same, we cocked up so we will suffer for it, not sure what BA can do other than work with the airports closely to try and get rapid testing stations deployed for travellers to produce this Covid-19 passport I keep reading about so then it doesn't matter when our lockdown started.

lcylocal

Sadly though when cases were doubling every two days, a two day delay is very significant.

subject2load

It’s a truly sad day for all directly concerned - not least their families, of course. Although, worth noting that the exact words - which will have been chosen carefully by BA, given the importance / impact even of the announcement itself - were as quoted above by NWIFlyer :

“ ........... 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.“

(bold added by me).

I am sure BA will have wanted to over-estimate in this difficult scenario rather than under-estimate. With things developing at such a rapid pace - and with so many ongoing unknowns - the precise number of those affected will not be certain for some time. But regardless of actual figures, this is a tragic story, ..... aling with so many other, similar, scenarios. Plus, the current & ever-growing strain on Government aid / support funding is huge, to say the very least.