British Airways predicts layoffs as industry in crisis over coronavirus
British Airways CEO warned staff that the industry is going through a crisis due to the coronavirus outbreak and expects to make job cuts and ground an unprecedented number of planes.
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In a message to employees on Friday, BA’s chief executive, Alex Cruz, said that the airline would be “parking aircraft in a way we never have before.”
Cruz told BA’s staff that coronavirus was “a crisis of global proportions like no other we have known” according to Reuters. He warned staff that layoffs were coming, “perhaps for a short period, perhaps longer term”.
He added: “Please do not underestimate the seriousness of this for our company.”
BA has already cut hundreds of flights mainly to Europe and is yet to announce further flight cuts.
The drop in demand for flights comes as the US government announced a travel ban from Europe on Wednesday night. Trump said closed the US' borders to all flights coming from the Schengen space to prevent a further spread of the virus.
European airlines such as German Lufthansa said it could ground most of its fleet and call for state aid as a reaction to Trump’s announcement.
BA parent company International Consolidated Airlines has further problems with Spanish carrier Iberia as it could suffer in Latin America, one of its strongest markets, and could see all its flights into countries such as Argentina, Chile and El Salvador cut.
IAG was up 3.80% on Friday to 324p.