British Airways job cuts ignite strike fears
British Airways job cuts ignite strike fears
11 June 2009Holidaymakers could be facing the prospect of disrupted flight plans this summer after British Airways told staff that they needed to cut 2,000 employees from its cabin crew.
BA has told its 14,000 cabin crew staff that 2,000 of them must go either through voluntary redundancy or, failing that, enforced job cuts.
The move is due to financial problems brought about by the recession, which saw the commercial aviation company lose £401 million in 2008.
BA chief executive Willie Walsh said at the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Kuala Lumpur that while he could not rule out enforced redundancies, summer strike action was unlikely.
"I don''t see it. We have got very intelligent people working for us at BA. They can see what is happening in the industry," he said.
The BA announcement comes just days after chief executive of the IATA Giovanni Bisignani stated that he believed the world''s airlines would lose more than $9 billion this year.
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