BA plans to make up to 12,000 staff redundant

BA has set out plans to make up to 12,000 of its staff redundant because of the global collapse in air travel. The airline’s CE Alex Cruz told BA’s 42,000 staff on Tuesday that the company “must act decisively now to ensure that British Airways has a strong future” and that means more than one in four jobs must be cut. Cruz said the carrier, which has placed 22,600 people on the government’s furlough scheme, “cannot expect the taxpayer to offset salaries indefinitely”. “Yesterday, British Airways flew just a handful of aircraft out of Heathrow. On a normal day we would fly more than 300. What we are facing as an airline, like so many other businesses up and down the country, is that there is no ‘normal’ any longer,” Cruz said in a letter to staff . “We are a strong, well-managed business that has faced into, and overcome, many crises in our hundred-year history. We must overcome this crisis ourselves, too.” Cruz said the airline and its parent company IAG had informed the government and its trade unions about its plans to cut jobs, and would begin a consultation period with staff and unions immediately. Unions responded with anger.<br/>