British Airways to cut 12,000 jobs as pandemic hits the travel industry

On Friday, British Airways announced that it would slash its workforce of roughly 12,000 jobs to survive a collapse in travel demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the airline company, more than 6,000 workers decided to take voluntary redundancy.

The International Airlines Group (ICAG.L), which owns the British Airways, said that it would send out letters to its remaining employees to inform them whether they still have a job or not. All of the staff would be given a choice to accept a new contract or stay with their old one.

“It is disappointing that a company doing everything it can to save jobs is being singled out by Unite for a national criticism when jobs are being lost across the country in every industry. If staff accept the changes to the way they work or their terms and conditions, we expect to be able to save more jobs,” the company said in a statement.

British Airways said that the lockdown and halt in travel “is the biggest challenge the airline and our industry has ever faced.” The airline company used the government’s wage-subsidy scheme four months ago to furlough 30,000 staff until the end of May.