IAG’s Willie Walsh on Monday discussed the government’s quarantine plan, as he warned it could take until 2024 for passenger numbers to return to the levels seen before the coronavirus outbreak.
Walsh, chief executive of IAG, outlined how the firm’s divisions, such as British Airways, have been hurt by travel restrictions.
He said: “Our estimate at this stage is that it will probably be 2023 or 2024 before we get back to the levels of demand that we witnessed in 2019.”
IAG last month warned that BA was notifying its trade unions about a proposed restructuring and redundancy programme that may result in the redundancy of up to 12,000 employees.
Walsh’s comments today were made to MPs on the transport committee . The committee is examining the impact Covid-19 is having on the aviation sector.
He was speaking after the Prime Minister yesterday said it will “soon be the time... to impose quarantine on people coming into this country by air”. There has been growing speculation it could be for 14-days.
Walsh said: “We had been planning to resume, on a pretty significant basis, our flying in July. I think we’ll have to review that based on what the Prime Minister said yesterday."
He pointed to troubles in the sector being made worse by a 14-day quarantine plan.
