Industrial action at British Airways could spread further across the UK as unions consult with more workers over whether to stage strikes over pay. About 700 mostly check-in staff at Heathrow Airport have already voted to strike over the summer holidays. But the GMB and Unite unions are also consulting engineers and call centre staff at Gatwick, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle on taking action. BA said it was "fully committed to work together to find a solution". On Wednesday, hundreds of BA workers backed strike action over a 10% pay cut introduced during the pandemic. The airline has offered staff a one-off payment, equal to 10% of their salary, but GMB members at Heathrow want the full pay cut reversed. BA said it had made an "offer of a 10% payment which was accepted by the majority of other colleagues". The BBC understands this includes ground operations, engineering and cabin crew workers, who are also represented by Unite and GMB. The wider consultation ballot is separate to the Heathrow issue and about wider concerns over pay. A spokesman for the GMB, said: "Thousands of BA engineers at Heathrow, Gatwick and in Scotland along with call centre staff in Newcastle and Manchester are in the middle of consultative ballot for possible industrial action in a row over pay."<br/>
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Qantas is set to make a further cut to its domestic capacity to help mitigate the effects of higher fuel prices and the industry’s talent shortage. However, the decrease will still mean the airline will operate at 106% of pre-COVID levels for Q2 FY23 and 110% for Q3. The announcement came alongside news many employees would be eligible for a $5,000 bonus following a two-year wage freeze. “For July and August, an additional 5 percentage points of capacity will be removed on top of the 10% announced in May,” said Qantas in a statement to the ASX. “This total 15% cut will also be applied to September. A cut of 10 percentage points will be applied to schedules from October through to the end of March 2023. These reductions, combined with robust international and domestic travel demand, are expected to help the Group substantially recover the elevated cost of fuel indicated by forward oil prices. They will also assist with the near-term resourcing pressures currently being felt across aviation and the broader economy.”<br/>
Qantas Airways lost one of its top candidates to succeed long-serving CEO Alan Joyce with the departure of low-cost head Gareth Evans. Evans, CEO of Qantas’ budget airline Jetstar, will step down in December and leave in 2023, the airline said Friday. He’s worked at Qantas for 23 years. Having previously led Qantas’ finance and international divisions, Evans was in prime position to take the top job. Joyce, who has led the Australian airline since 2008, has agreed to stay on until at least the end of 2023. “We spend a lot of time developing our internal talent pipelines for succession opportunities like this,” Joyce said. “We’ll be appointing a new Chief Executive for Jetstar soon.” Qantas CFO Vanessa Hudson in March said she’d like to succeed Joyce if given the chance.<br/>