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By Sarah Young
LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - British Airways is having to
take every measure possible to make it through the winter
because a fear of flying during the pandemic has destroyed any
hope of a rapid return to normality, its boss said on Wednesday.
BA CEO Alex Cruz told a parliamentary select committee that
the airline was running at 25 to 30% of its normal flight
schedule, prompting it to cut thousands of jobs because "fewer
flights means fewer people required to actually service them".
"This is the worst crisis that British Airways has gone
through in its 100 years of history," he said. "We're still
fighting for our own survival.
"We are taking every measure possible to make sure we can
actually make it through this winter. We do not see a short-term
coming back of our passengers. All the feedback we get ... is
still pointing at a slow recovery process."
Britain's leading airline has been heavily criticised by
politicians and unions for laying off 13,000 staff and
renegotiating the contracts of many of its remaining employees.
It says it has no choice, because it is burning through 20
million pounds a day and straining the finances of parent
company IAG which is in the process of raising 2.74
billion euros from shareholders.
Cruz has cut his own pay by around a third.
UK-based airlines have benefited from government employment
retention schemes and loans, but have not had the kind of
industry-specific support deployed in France and Germany to bail
out Air France-KLM and Lufthansa.
Cruz said a return to flying had been hampered by the weekly
changes to quarantine rules and the lack of a testing system at
airports. A two-stage testing system, where passengers are
tested on arrival and five days later could remove the need for
14-day quarantines, he said.
"We remain worried with regards to the evolution of the rest
of the winter season. People are still afraid of travelling and
we are having weekly changes to the quarantine list, we don't
have a testing solution yet.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; writing by Kate Holton; editing by
Estelle Shirbon)
