BA will reduce its flight schedule this month after theBritish government put further restrictions on leisure travel to try to curb the spread of coronavirus. "Our focus is on keeping crucial air links open - bringing home the thousands of customers currently abroad, transporting vital goods, and ensuring people who are permitted to travel in and out of the UK for work, education and other reasons stipulated by the UK Government, can continue to do so," BA said. BA said it would contact customers whose flights are cancelled to offer refund or rebooking options. Sky News also reported that BA would furlough more staff as a result of the changes.<br/>
oneworld
Nearly all of Cathay Pacific’s pilots and more than 90% of its cabin crew have signed new, cheaper employment contracts, the airline has revealed. In all, 2,613 of its pilots and 7,346 cabin crew accepted the take-it-or-leave-it deals, representing 98.5% and 91.6% of the two groups, respectively. In its announcement, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier also said staff members who refused to sign the new contracts would be leaving the company but receive exit packages that went beyond statutory requirements. The airline added that severance payouts would not be offset against pension contributions. Based on the airline’s data, some 40 pilots and 674 cabin crew opted not to sign the new contracts. “We have jobs for every pilot who was offered COS18 [contract] and we wanted a 100 per cent take up,” Cathay’s director of flight operations Chris Kempis said in a Thursday internal memo tipping how many had signed new contracts. “However, we also realised that it was possible that some would choose to leave us rather than accept.” In making the official announcement shortly thereafter, director of service delivery Alex McGowan said: “I am very grateful that over 90% of cabin crew who were offered a role have chosen to remain part of our team.” Hong Kong’s flag carrier, which employs more than 3,000 pilots worldwide, previously said it would rehire redundant pilots to backfill positions. The latest memo from Kempis did not indicate if the airline would proceed with that commitment.<br/>
Japan Airlines will use biofuels made from household garbage starting as early as fiscal 2022 as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, company sources said Thursday. The airline plans to refuel in San Francisco its aircraft connecting the United States and Japan and will use recycled aviation fuel produced by US startup Fulcrum BioEnergy, the sources said. JAL invested around US$8.6m in the startup in 2018. The airline, which has occasionally used the newly-developed biofuel in the past, will introduce it on a regular basis from April 2022 at the earliest. It is aiming to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 by introducing advanced jets and fuels while also buying emission credits from other airlines.<br/>
Qantas will permanently close its service and sales desks at all airports and lounges, leaving passengers to deal with cancellations and last-minute booking changes themselves at self-service kiosks, online or through a call centre. The airline will maintain staffed check-in desks, but lost-baggage counter hours will be cut in favour of "self-serve recovery" and all other services will be self-managed as part of an overhaul one union says will make Qantas no better than Jetstar. Qantas told staff on Thursday the customer service changes would be made in the first half of 2021. They were part of its COVID-19 cost-cutting drive, and also reflected the pandemic changing how people wanted to travel. "More people are choosing to self-manage their bookings, check in and boarding processes," Qantas' executive manager of airports, Colin Hughes, said in a note sent to staff. "Their feedback, which is understandable in this environment, is that they prefer digital interactions over face to face contact." The Australian Services Union's assistant national secretary Emeline Gaske said about 100 workers would be sacked as a result. She predicted "chaos" during severe weather events or other major disruptions, and said the removal of customer service staff would be particularly hard for older passengers and people with disabilities. Qantas rejected the ASU's claim that customer service would suffer as a result of the changes, which it said were in response to customer feedback. "The main driver is an increasing shift towards people using our app to check in and manage their own bookings, particularly as we expand what the app can do," Qantas' executive manager of product and service, Phil Capps, said.<br/>