BA possibly making up to 12,000 redundant. Here we go. Recession looming.

[BubblesBuddy]

Life has ground to a halt and BA don’t think we will be flying in the same numbers as before. This is 25% of their staff. This is serious.

It's so so sad :(
Those poor people.
Terrible news.

It was always coming wasn’t it

Yes it's serious, but it's not actually happened yet and part of me wonders how much of this is brinksmanship

Figures have ceased to mean much with government constantly moving goalposts and various other companies are starting to open up again, so it could just be a corporate pushback against inertia and incompetence - an extra reminder, if you like, of just what's at stake and that there are other issues than the virus

Guess it depends if we are allowed on holiday. Unlikely

@lamppotkettle even if we are allowed holidays, I think a lot of people will be avoiding traveling on holidays by flight for a long time.

It's not an industry that can diversify is it? They probably do cargo ? ( not sure , but they might?) other than that there isn't much else the workers can do.

That was a threat for the government to publish a get out strategy (and almost certainly includes non-UK related losses too).

Of course there is a recession looking, unfortunately it will lead to a lot of job losses across various sectors. I feel really sorry for those who will be losing their jobs, the aviation industry will likely take a big hit, as well as finding it hard to recover from this time grounded.

Looming*

I guess that cabin crew have hospitality skills so can get jobs elsewhere once we are back open , but pilots are a different matter.
I don't know much about the aviation industry to be fair but I'm sad for people.
Horrible situation

A recession was on the cards due to Brexit. Unfortunately the pandemic has caused this to happen sooner and probably worldwide.

The government will have to bring in U C for everyone at this rate.

A worldwide recession has already started;
very likely a Global Depression is coming

Airlines are powerless to do much about that - their passenger business model can't work with Social Distancing

Most of the economy - and hence schools - will have to restart in stages from about mid-May

However, public gatherings - excluding public transport, work & schools - will likely be limited to maximum of say 20 /30 / 50 adults,
so at least 10% of the economy is buggered

That's flights
Also a lot of the entertainment, hospitality & leisure sectors that can't adapt
Aerospace sector will be hit too - major orders cancelled already

That’s a huge number.

I am fairly sure that although holiday travel will bounce back a fair bit in the future, business travel will be significantly lower forever - why spend £££ flying staff to new York etc when you can just zoom?

So whilst the death rate begins to fall because of the lockdown- the negative side of the lockdown is mass unemployment.

Sad times all round

John Lewis have also said not all their stores will reopen when lockdown ends

I guess that cabin crew have hospitality skills so can get jobs elsewhere once we are back openI

You mean in the thousands of new hotels that will open when lockdown ends...?

Very sad for BA and all the jobs around it - airline food, transport etc

I do think air travel for business had got out of hand for our climate issues and gov didn’t seem able to calm it but this was too drastic for those losing their jobs.

I guess no airport expansion at Heathrow, Luton etc too?

So sad, I have two BA pilots in the family and the way they're treated on a good day is atrocious. Then to lose the job they are so passionate about, despite the crappy conditions and treatment, it's awful. My cousin was repeatedly sent off during his training for 6 months, no income because there they didn't have enough capacity to train them or something. He ended up working as ground crew and even in a petrol station!

I wonder if cabin crew would go into nhs ec where we were low in staff before all this? Hopefully paid better now the gov values the nhs...

*They probably do cargo ? ( not sure , but they might?)

They don't have a full time cargo fleet, but like most airlines BA have always carried cargo as well as baggage in the holds of their passenger fleet - it is known as "belly freight", and it's pretty lucrative..

At the moment they are using some of their Longhaul fleet in dedicated freighter roles at the moment, with cargo being carried in both the holds and in some cases secured to seats..for example they have brought a lot of PPE back in recent days from the far east. The problem is the passenger "fit" - seats, galleys etc, doesn't make them anything like as efficient as a specialist freight aircraft (for example boxes stowed on seats have to be loaded/unloaded by hand so turn rounds aren't efficient)...and converting a passenger airframe into a pure freighter can't be done overnight..

As far as the announcement this evening goes, I think everybody knew redundancies are almost inevitable, but the scale is a bit of a shock..OTOH It's an "up to 12,000", the statement has come from IAG not BA itself, and there's due process to go through with all the Unions involved...

I guess that cabin crew have hospitality skills so can get jobs elsewhere once we are back open , but pilots are a different matter

Yes pilots are, they take much longer to train and get on line than cabin crew.

I suspect if the company sense there's any chance of an improvement in trading in the next 6-18 months they are going to be reluctant to take a massive axe to pilot numbers (same will apply at any airline).

I suspect BA sadly might have to make some pilots redundant but I think they're are quite likely to try and reduce the head count/man power equivalent by offering early retirement to some who were approaching retirement anyway and for many others offer part time on reduced pay - those individuals can then quickly be brought back up to full time/full pay if/when things do ramp up.

The Government would have been better off introducing a universal citizen's income for the country while it looked like it was still their idea.

Is there scope for staff to take pay cuts to help save jobs. That’s what’s happening in our company. Initially it’s just for 3 months but could last longer. I think wages are going to be hugely forced down by this going forward to add to the economic gloom.