Why do they always do this on a Friday?
What is happening to the people in BA Connect?
We will be discussing this planned share sale with the trade unions that represent all of the employees at BA Connect.
The main point as far as BA Connect employees are concerned is that this is a share sale so the company remains as it is now. The only exception to that is that at or around the time of the share sale BA Plc will be moving the RJ aircraft, their pilots and and the LCY line engineers into a new wholly owned subsidiary of BA Plc, to serve LCY routes. There will also be some opportunities for BA Connect cabin crew and head office staff to join this new LCY subsidiary.
FLIGHT CREW: All flight crew will remain employed by BA Connect Ltd and the new owner has indicated that they wish to retain all BA Connect flight crew. Flybe will operate over 70 aircraft in the new organisation and has further growth plans. Flybe believe that this will create long term employment opportunities with fast track promotion to command an option for many. Flybe is confident that over 30 BA Connect First Officers will be promoted to Commanders within the first year.
As the RJ fleet of aircraft does not form part of the sale, RJ pilots will move to the new London City business and the proposal for the RJ flight crew is that they will be based in Edinburgh.
Discussions will take place with those staff and their representatives to consider the personal impact of this.
CABIN CREW: All cabin crew will remain employed by BA Connect and again the new owner has indicated that they wish to retain all BA Connect cabin crew. However, there will be a requirement for cabin crew in the new LCY business. It is envisaged there will be options for some current BA Connect cabin crew to move to the new LCY business.
In the short term, it would be unrealistic to assume that there will be no job losses as a result of this deal as there are areas of overlap between the two companies.