BA plans to move all employees onto new pension scheme next year

BA has begun consultations with employees and trade bodies over a new pension plan a fortnight after its proposal to close its earlier scheme was blasted by unions. The carrier said the new scheme would be "more flexible", giving staff pension choices such as whether to take the employer contribution to the scheme as cash or for higher employer contributions. British Airways is proposing shifting all its staff onto the new scheme from next April, and shutting its New Airways Pensions Scheme (NAPS) to future contributions from its existing 17,000 members. It said this decision was taken after the pension deficit hit £3.7bn in March, despite the firm having paid GBP3.5b into the scheme since 2003, with the growing black hole a result of increases in life expectancy and low interest rates. BA first put forward the plans to close NAPS earlier this month, a move which sparked criticism from Unite and GMB. Unite and GMB had said thousands of staff were now facing "uncertainty in their retirement". However, BA said Tuesday if it kept the NAPS open, then the cost of it could rise to about 45% of pensionable pay in future years, which it claimed was more than four times the typical contribution of other UK airlines. <br/>