British Airways is set to make up to 12,000 redundancies as the global giant battles the effects of the coronavirus crisis.
The airline revealed tonight it was telling trade unions about a restructuring and redundancy scheme after global passenger numbers fell amid lockdowns and stay-at-home orders around the world.
Parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) said revenues for the first quarter fell 13% to £4bn.
BA employs some 42,000 people around the world.
IAG said: “In light of the impact of Covid-19 on current operations and the expectation that the recovery of passenger demand to 2019 levels will take several years, British Airways is formally notifying its trade unions about a proposed restructuring and redundancy programme.
“The proposals remain subject to consultation but it is likely that they will affect most of British Airways’ employees and may result in the redundancy of up to 12,000 of them.
“As previously announced, British Airways has availed itself of the UK’s Covid-19 job retention scheme and furloughed 22,626 employees in April.”
IAG said most of the reduction in its operating result was incurred by British Airways, followed by Iberia and Aer Lingus.
