krispy84

Far too soon to know.

I wouldn’t put money on all LGW flights cancelled.

DYKWIA

Didn’t BALPA prove pretty weak during the last negotiations in 2019(??)? After threatening all sorts of action, they eventually just settled for more or less what BA had offered in the first place.

skipness1E

IAG have the Iberia Express option.
They open a new carrier on a separate AOC, British Airways (Gatwick) Ltd and open recruitment, there's a pool of desperate pilots currently working delivering Amazon packages who would bite your hand off for the current package less x%. They brand the operation as BA and staff it with new hires on lower terms, if BALPA object, IAG can say not one more hire will be made at BA Mainline and all future hires will be via the new entity, which will also be flying from LHR in the future. All BALPA can actually do is strike. Iberia caved to this and their terms were slashed AND Iberia Express remains just in case.

Management can be bar stewards in the interests of those shareholders....

oneworldglobetrotter

Some comments this evening from Gallego in his first U.K. interview since taking over at IAG:

“The thing is, in Gatwick for the last ten years, except 2016, we were losing money. And now we are going to have an even tougher environment, so we need to have an efficient vehicle there. What we want is to provide the same standard [of service] and the same BA experience but on a more efficient platform.”

Sources say that Walsh wanted to kill Gatwick but Gallego listened to a pitch from the management team to keep it open and retain BA’s strong London market presence. Union officials who have dealt with him both at Iberia and BA say this was typical, and a big change in tone at IAG from Walsh, a former pilot who would typically shoot more from the hip.

The problem, Gallego says, is that Gatwick is a seasonal airport, reliant on summer holiday traffic. To make it viable he has to get pilots and staff on flexible, cheaper working arrangements.

Full article available here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/w...lego-mnz6szjtm

JerseyPilot

There’s always that option but it’s very costly and time consuming. There may be a pool of out of work pilots right now but there’s actually not that many rated on type and it’s not only the trainees you have to find a load of trainers to train them as well. Time is against them. It’s part of the reason BA came to Balpa with this in the first place (along with Scope). To get this up and running by end of March will require an awful lot of cooperation from Balpa. Throw into the mix the fact that easyJet are forecasting a big shortage of Captains for Summer 22 because nobody wants to return to their previous full time contracts (they all took community part time to save jobs) and suddenly NewCo and the pitiful terms and conditions on offer there suddenly becomes a lot harder to crew. It’s not quite as simple as new AOC job done; time and the course of events in market conditions are actually turning against BA.

luxurytravelled

Sky News reporting the deal is off, couldn't agree terms with BALPA.

Jamesbatraveller

With the termination of BA’s Gatwick subsidiary plans because the Unions could not reach an agreement I hope that this has not signed the final death warrant of BA’s short haul operations from LGW.

Speedbirdsouth

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/...alks-collapse/

KARFA

and a precursor to a further round of redundancies considering there won't be any LGW short haul this winter and furlough is now ending?

A P Yu

They can mobilise a new pilot workforce in 6 months at Gatwick, even with Trainers. Monarch, TCX, EZY and ex BA Nigels will all apply and recruitment would be heavily over subscribed. SEP done in Madrid and or Dublin if need be.
Surely its a harder way of doing things but it is doable if there is a long term business case for Gatwick.
Redundancy Consultations will no doubt start immediately though in the meantime which is a shame.

PZE

I can't comment on all, but right now it looks like Italian routes operated out of LGW have been pulled for S22 - nothing to CAG, CTA, BRI in May/June as far as I can see, either through BA.com or Matrix/Google flights. Destinations have disappeared from sale completely rather than being sold from LHR.

luxurytravelled

Looks like all short-haul from Gatwick. Tenerife and Spanish routes missing too.

Cap'n Benj

They’re not all gonna fit into LHR slots, esp once things are full back up and running.

EZY will no doubt pick up the slack, prices however will no doubt see a bump with competition gone

KeaneJohn

All BA LGW routes for winter and summer apart from MAN and GLA have been removed from sale. BA looking to sell their slots allegedly. Not sure if this is tactics to help BALPA decide or BA just walking away.

Speedbirdsouth

The fact all LGW SH isn’t for sale anymore for summer 22, this seems final, no way back from this. To remove the entire LGW SH operation from sale wouldn’t, in my view be a tactic of negotiation.