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British Airways is exploring the sale of its headquarters as part of a plan to allow its head office staff to split their time permanently between home and office working after the pandemic. The airline has hired property consultants to evaluate a sale of the sprawling Waterside complex on the outskirts of Heathrow airport in west London, which houses 2,000 staff, according to an internal email seen by the Financial Times. “Many of us are based at Waterside and it’s not clear if such a large office will play a part in our future,” BA’s director of people, Stuart Kennedy, wrote in the message to staff. He added it is still “very early days” and a sale was just one option on the table. BA paid £200m for the land and construction of Waterside in the 1990s, but “one of the very few positive aspects” of the pandemic had been how well staff had adapted to working remotely, Kennedy said. The airline has undergone a painful restructuring since the pandemic first grounded its aircraft, and cut about 10,000 staff last year to leave it with a workforce of 30,000. Most of these work on the ground as flight and cabin crew, engineers and airport staff.<br/>

BA has increased the number of frequent flyer points that travellers need for European flights – though the airline insists it still has “an industry-leading proposition”. According to the travel loyalty website Head for Points, the airline has “quietly” added what appears to be a flat-fare surcharge of 750 Avios points to every one-way booking. While there is no direct cash equivalent of the value of Avios points, by some valuations the move is akin to adding between GBP6 and GBP10 to every trip. Rob Burgess, the founder of Head for Points, said: “At a time when cash prices are likely to be very weak, especially this winter, it is hard to understand the rationale behind ramping up Avios prices.”<br/>