British Airways may stop flying to Gatwick once pandemic passes

British Airways May Stop Flying To Gatwick Airport.

 

British Airways plans to make heavy cuts to its Gatwick airport operation as part of 12,000 redundancies, telling its staff it may not return to the airport after the coronavirus pandemic passes.

 

Under the plan, which was written in a memo by the head of BA’s Gatwick operation, the carrier will cut 1,130 captain and co-pilot jobs at the south London airport.

 

It will also look to lay off almost four in five crew managers and 60% of other cabin crew – more than 1100 of almost 1900 staff.

 

The airline has already furloughed more than half of its 45,000 employees across its whole workforce.

 

IAG has declined to seek government help, unlike Virgin Atlantic, which has so far been rejected.

 

In response to the memo, pilots union Balpa vowed to fight to save every pilot job.

 

The general secretary, Brian Strutton, said: “The company has declined government support claiming it is financially secure enough to survive the coronavirus crisis, so it is hard to see how these cuts can be justified.

 

“There are many options to ensure BA can continue its business and survive coronavirus and Balpa does not accept that job losses are the only answer.”

 

British Airways has been flying from Gatwick Airport for decades. Before its merger with BOAC in 1974 to form BA, BEA flew its first routes from the hub in 1950.