British Airways is reportedly expected to suspend around
36,000 employees, or about 80 per cent of its staff, after grounding most of
its fleet due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The airline has suspended all flights from Gatwick and
London City airports and is now only serving Heathrow in the capital. It has been
assisting the government with repatriation flights, including flying home
hundreds of Brits stranded in Peru following the country’s lock-down.
According to the BBC, BA has been in negotiations with the
Unite union for more than a week to reach a deal on temporarily suspending
cabin crew, ground staff, engineers and some working at its head office. The
airline is not expected to make any redundancies.
The decision will reportedly affect all staff at Gatwick and
London City. Those affected are expected to receive at least 80 per cent of
their wages through the UK government’s coronavirus job retention scheme, which
covers up to £2,500 a month.
BA had already reached a separate agreement with its pilots,
who will take a 50 per cent pay cut over two months.
GlobalData's head of travel and tourism Nick Wyatt commented: “These reports come as no surprise and are just the latest in a growing line of furlough announcements. It is incredibly sad to hear news of temporary job losses but this is a necessary step for BA.
“The decisions it is taking now focus on securing future existence rather than improving current operational strategy. Mass flight suspensions mean that current operations are minimal and airlines are burning through cash rapidly. This is a difficult decision, but a necessary one.
“Few industries have experienced Covid-19 disruption to the extent that airlines have and even the largest airlines are now in a fight for survival."
The news comes after Virgin Atlantic and Easyjet furloughed
a large number of staff, with the latter grounding its entire fleet. Virgin
Atlantic, which has reportedly requested a £500 million government bailout to
survive the coronavirus crisis, is now flying just three routes from Heathrow –
Hong Kong, Los Angeles and New York JFK – after suspending services from
Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast.
Earlier this week, IATA said it expects global airlines to
lose around US$40 billion (£32.3 billion) over the next three months, with many
carriers burning through cash reserves, mainly due to the cost of refunding
passengers for cancelled flights.
Updated 2 April 2020: This story was updated to include analysis from GlobalData head of travel and tourism Nick Wyatt.