Etihad Airways plans to cut 50 pilot jobs by end of this month after a significant loss last year, two sources who have seen an internal memo by the airline said Thursday. The state-owned Gulf carrier has been reviewing its business since 2016 after a strategy of investing billions of dollars in other airlines failed. Etihad has around 160 surplus pilots and will lay off 50 by the end of January, the airline told pilots in the memo, according to the sources, who declined to be named because the memo was intended to be private. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier employs 2,065 pilots, the sources added. An Etihad spokeswoman said its flight operations department was under review and that any reduction in staff was likely to be small. The airline also said in the memo it made a “significant loss” last year and that this would continue into 2019. Etihad is yet to report its financial results for 2018.<br/>
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Etihad Airways has cancelled orders for all 10 of its Airbus A320neo jets, the airframer’s latest backlog revision has revealed. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad has been undertaking a restructuring effort including a review of its fleet and capacity requirements. The airline had 10 A320neos and 26 A321neos on order, but the commitment to the smaller variant has been axed, the airframer confirms. Etihad’s order for the A321neo remains intact. It had placed the order for the 36 re-engined single-aisle jets in November 2013, as part of a broader deal for 87 aircraft which also included 50 A350s and an A330 freighter. Etihad’s outstanding Airbus commitments, at the end of December, comprised 22 A350-1000s and 40 A350-900s as well as the 26 A321neos.<br/>
BA has withdrawn a TV ad featuring holidaymakers making easy money from slot machines after a group of MPs complained that the airline was glamorising gambling. The decision comes after MPs including the former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith and the Labour gambling campaigner Carolyn Harris wrote to the company urging it to pull the “ill-judged” advertisement. “Having spent many hours in recent months listening to harrowing stories of futures that have been ruined, families that have been destroyed and lives that have been lost as a direct result of gambling, we were appalled to see such a well-respected company glamorising it,” they wrote in a letter to the BA CE, Alex Cruz. Harris also complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which received several complaints after the ad was shown this week. In a letter to Harris, the advertising regulator said BA had responded to its initial enquiries by removing the advert from transmission. “Given that BA have confirmed that the ad will no longer be appearing, we will not be pursuing further action at this time,” the ASA wrote. <br/>