AIR 2000 Pay Cuts
Out this Afternoon
Air 2000 pilots agree pay cut to save jobs
4:12pm Friday, 16th November 2001
Air 2000 pilots have agreed to a pay cut to save jobs.
Their decision to accept a 5% reduction in pay will save 50 jobs.
Air 2000 had initially said it needed to make 77 pilots redundant, and demote 38 captains to first officer status, to save £3.2 million.
The alternative plan includes 32 pilot job losses and the demotion of 16 captains out of a workforce of 387 at the Manchester-based charter airline, part of First Choice Holidays.
The British Air Line Pilots' Association says its members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the job-saving scheme.
Air 2000 says the 5% pay cut will be repaid by the company in the summer.
Christopher Darke, Balpa's general secretary, says: "We're delighted the company is backing our alternative plan.
"We've been imaginative in dealing with the redundancy problem. Pilots wanted to share the pain and, in the process, save jobs. That's what they are doing.
"All credit to them, and all credit to the company for having the courage to take this path with us," Mr Darke says. "This surely is the way forward for the whole of British industry."
noon