London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

British Airways to cut up to 12,000 jobs as air travel collapses

British Airways to cut up to 12,000 jobs as air travel collapses

British Airways is set to cut up to 12,000 jobs from its 42,000-strong workforce due to a collapse in business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline's parent company, IAG, said it needed to impose a "restructuring and redundancy programme" until demand for air travel returns to 2019 levels.

The pilots' union Balpa said it was "devastated" at the news and vowed to fight "every single" job cut.

IAG also owns Spanish airline Iberia and Ireland's Aer Lingus.

In a statement, IAG said: "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."

The company said it will take several years for air travel to return to pre-virus levels, a warning that has been echoed by airlines across the world.

Alongside IAG's statement, BA chief executive Alex Cruz wrote in a letter to staff: "In the last few weeks, the outlook for the aviation industry has worsened further and we must take action now. We are a strong, well-managed business that has faced into, and overcome, many crises in our hundred-year history.

"We must overcome this crisis ourselves, too. There is no government bailout standing by for BA and we cannot expect the taxpayer to offset salaries indefinitely... We will see some airlines go out of business."

About 4,500 pilots and 16,000 cabin crew work for BA, which has already put almost 23,000 staff on furlough.

Balpa's general secretary Brian Strutton said: "This has come as a bolt out of the blue from an airline that said it was wealthy enough to weather the Covid storm and declined any government support.

"Balpa does not accept that a case has been made for these job losses and we will be fighting to save every single one."


Global impact

Also on Tuesday, IAG revealed the impact of the virus outbreak on group revenues. In the first three months of 2020 revenues fell 13% to €4.6bn (£4bn). Worse is to come warned Stephen Gunning, IAG's chief financial officer.

Airlines across the world have warned they face a fight for survival.

In the UK, EasyJet has laid off its 4,000 UK-based cabin crew for two months. And Sir Richard Branson has appealed to the government to help bail out his Virgin Atlantic airline with a loan thought to be up to £500m.

Elsewhere, Qantas has put 20,000 staff on leave, while Air Canada has done the same for about 15,200 employees. Norwegian Air has said it could run out of cash by mid-May. At American Airlines, about 4,800 pilots have agreed to take unpaid short-term leave and more than 700 are taking early retirement.

e know the aviation industry is in the throes of an unprecedented crisis. But the announcement from IAG is chilling nonetheless - and not only because of the number of jobs at stake. That's because the company is saying explicitly that it expects the recovery in the industry to be a very slow one, with passenger demand not reaching 2019 levels for "several years".

The airline can survive on its financial reserves for the moment - and take advantage of the government's job retention scheme to furlough employees for a short period. Government support of this kind is very short term. With a quick recovery it might be enough to save a large number of jobs.

Yet the prospect of that happening is deeply uncertain. It's not clear when countries will remove travel restrictions, under what conditions people will be able to fly - or even if they'll want to.

IAG has now made it clear it's expecting the industry to look very different in future to what was the norm until just a few weeks ago, and is taking action accordingly. But unions will disagree, and the company may find itself accused of over-reacting - or even of taking advantage of the crisis in order to reduce its cost base.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×