BA to lay off 12,000 employees amid global travel collapse due to coronavirus pandemic

British Airways’ (BA) owner IAG has announced that the airline will make around 12,000 workers redundant as a result of a collapse in the global travel sector amid the coronavirus pandemic.

ACCORDING to the airline’s owner IAG, a restructuring and redundancy programme that would primarily affect BA was being put to trade unions. In a letter to staff, the CEO of BA, Alex Cruz, stated there is no “normal any longer.”

In the letter sent to all staff, Cruz confirmed that the airline plans to lay off up to 12,000 employees. Around 22,626 are currently reported to be furloughed, however, Cruz pointed out that “we cannot expect the taxpayer to offset salaries indefinitely.”

“We do not know when countries will reopen their borders or when lockdowns will lift, so we have to reimagine and reshape our airline and create a new future for our people, for customers and the destinations we serve,” Cruz added. “We have informed the government and the trade unions of our proposals.”

He also paid tribute to the thousands of BA colleagues who are playing a vital role in the global response to the Covid-19 crisis. He ended the letter saying that “this has been a difficult message to write and one that I never thought I would need to send.” But he added that he had to act “decisively to ensure that BA has a strong future and continues connecting Britain with the world, and the world with Britain.”