UPDATED: British Airways reveals plans for single fleet with cuts of up to 12,000 staff

15 comments

1. It is very sad news as you say. But rather odd as suggested by BALPA the pilots union that only a few weeks ago they were boasting about cash reserves of £9B and no need to ask for government money to suddenly go to this must be horrendous news for the BA staff.

2. As you say, such dreadful news for so many staff. What’s everyone’s view on the future “shape” of BA? Will they drop some routes to focus on higher revenue ones? Is it the end for the A380 and/or 747? What about the “order” for the 737 MAX? I saw one “pundit” on BBC News suggesting a part nationalisation but I wonder if the links with Qatar might be strengthened?
   I know it’s all speculation but still interesting to consider the options, as I’m sure management must be doing.

   1. I think at the moment it’s very hard for airline to plan as it is so unknown. The A380 is definitely not looking in a great position but it depends on what their strategy is. They may go for bigger aircraft but with less frequency. I really hope the B747 manages to hang on for a few more years!

3. Michelle,
   Thanks for the update on poss BA cc amalgamation, Have to say based on my executive experience that this is just an opportunity for BA (IAG) to address its long standing issues.
   To be blunt – the corporate “back of the fag packet” calculations are being/ have been done and those who are going are going.
   Real shame and I genuinely feel for anyone affected – one can only hope some senior heads role too!

4. Hi Michelle
   Sad news indeed.

   I’m not clear what the differences are between the three ‘fleets’, nor the purpose of having them.

   What is the expected outcome/effect from moving to a single ‘fleet’?

   1. They originally had two fleets one short haul and one long haul. They bought in people on cheaper contracts even within these fleets but they still had the same terms and conditions such as rest periods down route. All of which were very generous. So mixed fleet were created but with lower pay and less time down route etc. Ideally BA want everyone on this contract as a) it’s much cheaper and b) it’s much more flexible when there is disruption if everyone works to the same rules. It was inevitable they would do this at some point. Now is the perfect opportunity for them to push this. Hopefully they let WW stay on their old salary but just change T & C if they want to stay on. MF salary is shockingly low.

      1. Thanks for the clarification

5. As worldwide and eurofleet retirements occurred, replacements would be into mixed fleet. This is just speeding up the process. This would be fine if training was upped to the old standards of worldwide and pay and conditions were along those lines too. However, whilst Walsh and his puppet Cruz are at the helm of BA, pigs may fly!

6. Written by the wife of a BA captain and forwarded to me by a loyal BA cabin crew member for 25 plus years…

   “My husband is a senior British Airways captain with over 30 loyal, devoted years of service with the airline.
   Middle class, solidly Home Counties, and precisely the person whose gentle tones you long to hear upon boarding a British Airways aircraft at the end of an arduous business trip in some moth-eaten corner of the world.
   As soon as his mellow, Radio 2 voice, and his “Good evening and ladies and gentlemen “ welcome aboard announcement comes across the PA system, you feel safe and warm, cocooned in the knowledge that for the next however many hours, you are secure in the hands of a consummate professional and his crew.
   Your subconscious immediately tries to picture him: a man in his late forties or early fifties, who, at the end of the flight, will no doubt fire up his trusty Volvo estate and drive home to his wife, 2.4 children, and ageing labrador or golden retriever.
   You might even meet him for a pint in the village local that evening.

   You recline into your premium cabin seat, order a G&T, and in your head at least, you’re already back in Blighty as the careworn palm trees whip past your window and the plane rolls along the runway on its takeoff path.
   That’s my old man, the quintessential BA skipper.
   Slice him in half, and you’ll discover the BA logo running through him like a stick of Brighton rock.
   I cannot begin to list how many times he has gone above and beyond for his colleagues, passengers and employer.
   Always the first to board, and the last to disembark, regardless of how exhausted he might be.
   A passenger in need of assistance? He’s there like a shot.
   A late wheelchair on arrival back at base? He’ll send everyone home and stay with the passenger until one eventually turns up, which these days can sometimes be an hour or more, not the ideal conclusion to a long night flight.
   Crew member taken ill down route? He’ll accompany them to hospital and keep in regular contact until he’s satisfied that they’re ok and all relevant parties have been notified.
   Duty. Honour. Responsibility. Decency. Solid British Airways characteristics, or at least they used to be.
   BA is his life, and in spite of me telling him for years that his spaniel-like fidelity would always go unrecognised (how right I was), he has stubbornly put his unswerving duty to “The Company” ahead of any other commitments to family or friends.
   Now we fear the worst, and fully expect that Messrs Walsh and Cruz will stab him in the back in grateful recognition of his many years of blind loyalty.
   COVID-19 is manna from heaven for IAG and the BA board: an opportunity for the company to divest itself of those employees who still enjoy the relative luxury of a half-decent contract and working conditions.
   Make no mistake. Henceforth, ALL British Airways employees will be working on minimum salary contracts, with little job security and the cheapest and worst working conditions legally allowable.
   “Don’t like it, Captain X? Shove off and we’ll have you replaced within a month…”
   Fills one with pride to Fly the Flag, does it not?
   BA has the cash reserves to come to a better and infinitely more humane solution than to sack 12,000 employees who would, I am in no doubt, be prepared to work for a reduced salary, thereby reducing costs and meeting the shortfall by sharing out the workload.
   The snag with that plan, however, is that IAG, WIllie Walsh and Alex Cruz would lose this never-to-be-repeated-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which offers them the chance to get rid of their more expensive employees under the cover of crisis.
   It’s a gift horse not to be ignored.
   Equally, for BA to accept a very cheap government loan would open the door for Virgin, it’s most bitter of rivals, to do the same, thereby giving it the opportunity to find possible salvation.
   Walsh and Cruz have therefore concluded that, rather than give their UK opponents any chance of survival, it is preferable to throw their most loyal people to the wolves, and then replace them in a few years with far cheaper labour.
   Two birds with one stone. Job done. Management bonuses and Veuve Clique all round.
   And there, in a nutshell, is the brutal reality of the “we’ll come out of this a better society”, post-COVID world.
   Gone are the gentlemanly days of Lords King and Marshall, who took it upon themselves to actually give a damn about their employees, and who, in return, were admired and respected by the workforce.
   Today it is the Wolves of Harmondsworth in charge; they have scented blood and are going in for the kill.
   Far from emerging from COVID into a kinder, more understanding place, we will discover that the vultures and hyenas who run our biggest companies will use today’s climate to slice, dice, and butcher their best people in the manner of the most brutal Wuhan wet market.
   If you thought things became cutthroat after 2008-9, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
   Bottom dollar business, to hell with humanity, and let’s screw whoever we can, (as we have for many years), only now, we have the perfect excuse.
   Morals? Decency? Respect?
   Only if there’s a profit to be made.
   I leave it to you to decide whether that is a reality which you wish to inhabit.
   Or a flag you wish to fly.
   We’ll take more care of you? Judge for yourself.”

   1. As valid as a number of your points and views are, any BA senior captain will have been earning a fantastic salary with very genreous staff travel benefits (first priority worldwide for less than £200) for many years.

      I can’t feel as sorry for him as the thousands of lower level BA staff that will end up not paying their mortgages or rent as a result of vast cuts across the airline.

      BA have been messing with cabin crew terms and conditions for years. Some years back when the cabin crew struck to maintain their terms BA pilots stabbed them in the back and worked as crew to keep planes flying and weakening their bargaining position. I wonder now how many crew will be sad to see some pilots getting the chop

      Lets not forget it was only summer last year that our fantastic BA pilots held the airline to ransom for their pay rises forcing thousands of averagely paid people to cancel or change their holiday plans, often costing financial or emotional issues. Holding out for the same percentage rise as others had already accepted. But think for a minute. the same percentage rise equates to vastly different gains when one earns £20k and one earns £160k

      Hard to feel as sorry as the above letter would like us to.

7. Very few people like redundancy, so I can understand the bitterness of the BA Captain’s wife.
   One of my former flight instructors from San Diego is now a BA 777 first officer. She was on 60% roster, so flew 2 trips per month, prior to the current disruption. She can bid for which trips she wants to do. Were she working 100% (probably 3.5 trips per month) she would earn £130,000 per annum. In 2018, I asked her whether she’d bother to become a captain, if offered, and she said yes, because she’d get £170,000 a year. Gaining a commercial licence is a rigorous process, and there are biannual checks; with pretty amazing pensions, staff travel etc, I’d say the rewards are fantastic. I agree that it sounds like the husband really puts himself out; when I was flying corporate jets as a captain with 25% of the remuneration, I did exactly the same. All sorts of people enjoying a fraction of her husband’s privileged benefits do the same. It’s called doing what you’re paid for.

   1. Doing what your paid for is something NHS staff, hospital porters, dustmen, care workers, emergency services and various low paid key workers are doing right now for all our benefits, they are the ones who are “really” going above and beyond. With the very real chance they might die. They were never able to jet off the Capetown in First class for £175. Thats only in their dreams

8. Please don’t start me off – totally agree although the current situation is far from their remit. I refer to life before, and as you state probably now & beyond? “There is no such thing as a bad soldier, only a bad officer”!!!!

9. It is not as though they show much loyalty to their customers either. In my opinion, BA have granted probably the worst “status extension offer” due to Covid-19 by any major airline. They clearly don’t want their passengers back either!

10. Top notch crew were the very last reason to fly BA, if their ranks are depleted any further and I have no doubt they will be.

    Walsh costs about the same a year as 300 mixed fleet crew, he was supposed to be gone, it’s a pity he hasn’t.

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