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BA to press ahead with cutting 12,000 jobs despite extension to furlough scheme to October

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BRITISH Airways is still planning to cut up to 12,000 jobs despite the government’s extension of the furlough scheme, which is helping it pay staff wages.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of IAG, which owns British Airways, is understood to have written to Huw Merriman, the MP who is chair of Parliament’s transport committee, saying that the plans had not changed.

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British Airways initially announced the job cuts last month

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British Airways initially announced the job cuts last monthCredit: Getty Images – Getty

Earlier this week, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that he had extended the furlough scheme until the end of October.

Most of British Airway’s 42,000 staff are currently being paid through the scheme.

But according to The Guardian, Mr Walsh said government help to pay wages would not compensate for “the reality of a structurally changed airline industry in a severely weakened global economy.”

“I want to confirm therefore that we will not pause our consultations or put our plans on hold,” he reportedly wrote.

It emerged at the end of last month that 12,000 British Airways workers jobs were at risk, including hundreds of pilots.

The airline has been crippled by the coronavirus crisis which has caused a global collapse in passenger numbers.

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Nine out of 10 flights have been grounded since the UK went into lockdown.

IAG said it would take “several years” for demand for air travel to return to 2019 levels.

In a letter to staff at the end of April, BA chief executive Alex Cruz wrote that the airline had been forced to take action.

“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.

“There is no government bailout standing by for BA and we cannot expect the taxpayer to offset salaries indefinitely.”

Mr Walsh had previously been urged by the transport committee to put plans for redundancies among the airline’s staff on hold.

During a committee meeting earlier this week, Mr Merriman had said British Airways should “put these redundancy plans back in the hold where they belong”.

He said while it was clear that the aviation sector “is on its knees right now”, the extension of the furlough scheme until October would allow British Airways employees to keep their jobs.

Earlier this week, British Airways said it could be forced to delay a planned return of flights in July due to new 14-day quarantine rules introduced by the government.

The new restrictions mean that anyone entering the country, either international visitors or Brits returning from holiday, will have to self-quarantine for two weeks.

British Airways declined to comment further on the job cuts.

The Sun has approached the transport committee for comment.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned that airlines cannot restart flights if countries have UK-style quarantines in place.

Here’s a full list of airlines still flying.

Meanwhile, Greece hopes to welcome tourists back from next month – as long as airlines are flying.

Travellers booking summers holidays are ‘taking a chance’ and doing so at their own risk, says Transport Sec



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