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(Adds BALPA union statement)
By Laurence Frost and Josephine Mason
PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - British Airways is seeking to
lay off a quarter of its pilots as it slashes costs to weather
the coronavirus crisis, according to a letter sent to their
union and seen by Reuters.
BA intends to cut 1,130 of its 4,346 flight captain and
co-pilot jobs, the IAG-owned airline's head of flight
operations told the BALPA union in the letter.
Under plans revealed on Wednesday, the airline is also
planning "significant" cuts to its 16,500 cabin crew in response
to the pandemic, which has all but halted traffic.
"In a short space of time the situation has significantly
deteriorated," BA's flight operations chief said in the April 28
letter to pilots. "There are no clear signs of improvement in
air passenger demand."
BA declined to comment on the planned layoffs, which were
first reported by Sky News.
Rivals Lufthansa and Air France-KLM are
putting off redundancies until they finalise government bailout
deals worth billions of euros. But IAG has set a different
course - pursuing 12,000 job cuts and productivity gains from
the remaining 30,000 employees, without seeking rescue aid.
The BA letter invoked rivals' aid to justify pilot layoffs
that go deeper than proposed fleet reductions, with fewer flight
crews assigned to each plane through more flexible contracts.
"It is worth noting that many of British Airways'
competitors in Europe and globally are receiving state aid in
various forms," the flight operations executive wrote to BALPA
union negotiator John Moore.
"The resulting competitive environment will create a
distorted market where some of those competitors will have the
option to provide overcapacity and lower fares."
That argument for job cuts left the pilots' union unmoved.
"The company has declined government support, claiming it is
financially secure enough to survive the coronavirus crisis, so
it's hard to see how these cuts can be justified," BALPA General
Secretary Brian Sutton said in a statement.
"BALPA is fighting to save every pilot job at BA," he said.
IAG, which also owns Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling, has
reaped the rewards of past cost-cutting that its main European
rivals have struggled to match.
Chief Executive Willie Walsh, who postponed his retirement
to steer the group through the crisis, has been a vocal opponent
of state support over the years. Like many other major carriers,
however, BA has used public funding to furlough tens of
thousands of staff.
In a move that some union officials described as
provocative, BA told pilots they should expect no more than
their minimum entitlements in severance pay.
"Under the current circumstances, the cost of delivering any
enhanced voluntary redundancy programme will now be
prohibitively expensive," the letter said.
"Subject to consultation, we are proposing to meet minimum
statutory obligations only, along with any contractual notice
pay."
Besides reducing its planned fleet, BA told pilots it was
pursuing "flexibility and efficiency changes" that would account
for 15% of the redundancies. "Those remaining in employment are
also likely to be impacted," the letter added.
In a separate message to British Airways staff this week,
the airline's CEO Alex Cruz had warned there was "no government
bailout standing by" and jobs would have to go.
British Airways has "overcome many crises in our
hundred-year history", Cruz wrote. "?We must overcome this
crisis ourselves, too.?"
(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Josephine Mason; Additional
reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by David Goodman/Edmund
Blair/Susan Fenton)
