BA Planning a Further 10,000 Job Cuts?

[The Guvnor]

From today's Sunday Times. Interestingly, this ties in with the rumours flying around an industry conference I attended over a month ago where it was being said that BA needed to lay off 20,000 people but that politically the could only do it in "drips and drabs".

BRITISH AIRWAYS is working on a secret project codenamed "Future Size and Shape" to establish whether the group should make further cutbacks in staff and capacity.

The working party is expected to report back in the next five weeks and this could lead to additional cuts in jobs and aircraft capacity. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Rod Eddington, BA's chief executive, said: "We are doing a piece of work asking whether we need to make any more structural changes. We call it Future Size and Shape."

One of the group's main tasks will be to consider how to reconstruct the airline around a merger with KLM, the Dutch carrier. Research by Chris Tarry of Commerzbank before the attacks suggested that a merged BA and KLM would require 16,000 job cuts. About 10,000 would have to come from BA, according to Tarry.

Eddington has shed 7,000 jobs since the attacks and has not ruled out more cuts if the poor market conditions continue. BA had more bad news for passengers on Friday when it announced a new £2.50 surcharge per sector on all flights to help recoup the cost of security and insurance, costs resulting from the American attacks.

BA will not lift the gloom tomorrow when it reveals that passenger numbers collapsed 30% last month compared withthe same period last year. The airline will also reveal that it has lost almost £70m during the first half of the year. However, with the proceeds from the sale of Go, the low-cost carrier, it will just scrape into the black.

Separately, two American airlines, Northwest and Delta, have filed documents with the US Department of Transportation urging the government to block the proposed alliance between BA and American Airlines. A Delta spokesman said the two companies should be ordered to release 504 transatlantic slots to competitors if the alliance is to be approved. If the US government does not accept this, competition will be stifled.

[Captain Airclues]

"passenger numbers collapsed 30% compared with the same period last year"

But wasn't that the plan? A319's have replaced 757's, 777's have replaced 747's, and the 401 seater 744's have been reconfigured as low as 226 seats with the new Club Sleeperseats. These caspacity cuts were planned long before Sept 11th.

Airclues

[sirwa69]

Too much knee jerking. BA took 2 flights a week off the Bahrain/Qatar run, but loads have been holding up to the same time last year and they are now having to put them back on again, and this is supposed to be the danger zone :confused:

[fudpucker]

You really do delight in being a Jeremiah, don't you Guv. What we have here is an article that say's "MAYBE" BA will shed 10,000 jobs in total, so by my simple reckoning that's 3000 to go, MAYBE.Not 20,000, maybe not even 10,000.
Eddington says in his interview that "We are doing a piece of work right now etc etc", and goes on to say that if more cuts are necessary, BA is adamant that it will use "the voluntary approach to redundancies."
So, none of this is set in stone, and whilst I appreciate a good gossip as well as the next person, and yes this is a rumour network, we are all in grave danger of talking ourselves into a worse situation than we are already in.

[bean_counter]

Airclues - I think the problem may be in what the 30% drop is made up of. Cutting capacity strategy was designed to shed lower yielding pax. If the 30% (or more) pax drop is in the front cabins instead of being spread equally across all then it spells big trouble.

I think we find out tomorrow as when they report they report by premium and non-premium

[tech...again]

Had heard that of the alleged 30% overall slump, 30% was at the front and 20% was down the back... which clearly isn't good.


:(

[maxalt]

This piece was probably penned by the same Sunday Times scribbler who wrote the headline about Aer Lingus being about to close if the unions didn't talk turkey...closely followed by the remark that they were actually already talking turkey in spades!

Credibile source?

Not in my book luvvie. :rolleyes:

[BusyB]

tech...again, wherewas the other 50% from then?

[mainfrog2]

As I understand the employment laws If BA make 10,000 redundant then it will be very difficult to adjust if there is an upturn in business as redundancies are not allowed to be replaced for 6 months. I think they'll go down the same road as they did for the previous 7000 ie look for parttimers and months of time off and natural wastage.

[MissChief]

Redundancies can't be replaced for 6 months??? How so, and which legislation are you quoting? This would be truly worying for the lay-offs this winter. :eek:

[Gaza]

MissChief - There are Inland Revenue rules about the re-hiring of staff who receive tax-free redundancy payments. As you are painfully aware, redundancy payments, up to £32,000, are tax free. Companies also get tax breaks on redundancy payments. The rules are designed to prevent redundancy payments being used as backdoor tax-free bonus payments. The rules are not black and white and my understanding is that the Revenue have some leeway in their interpretation.

[ 05 November 2001: Message edited by: Gaza ]

[BikerMark]

"BA had more bad news for passengers on Friday when it announced a new £2.50 surcharge per sector on all flights to help recoup the cost of security and insurance, costs resulting from the American attacks."

Is this such bad news? I don't think so. If anyone has trouble paying £2.50 for extra security in the current climate, I'd suggest they stay snuggled up in bed, don't turn on the news and don't go anywhere.

Mark.

[fergineer]

So if they started charging you 2-50 every time you wanted to park your bike at LHR Mark you would find that ok would you, remember they are charging this on every sector so for the business people that soon mounts up, they are just grabbing every penny they can get to line the directors pockts before the big ending, if they carry on alienating their pax it will not be long and not before time I hear a few say. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[The_Banking_Scot]

Of course, for a lot of business people, they will not notice it as their tickets are paid for by the company.
Some of the money wii be going straight to the insurers who have raised their charges.

Any information on whether bmi british midland and Virgin Atlantic are going to follow suit?

At least the £2-50 ( $4) per sector is half the price of Lufthansa ($8 per sector I belive)

[basil fawlty]

Guvnor,
I have resisted the temptation to reply to your purile postings up until now, but WHY oh WHY do you go ON and ON about certain subjects? You seem to have some sort of psychological problem, usually refered to, I believe as a "chip on the shoulder"? You seem to delight in the fact that those at BA, and many other airlines are suffering at the moment...That makes you a sad, selfish t**t! GROW UP CHILD, GET A LIFE!!! I worked at BA for several years and I am definately the first to agree that it is far from perfect, but there are many ordinary individuals there, doing the best they can to earn a living, and all you do is poo poo them ALL the time. Yes, there are too many managers, many of whom are incompetent, lazy or both and overpaid, but your numerous STUPID posts on this site will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to change this fact will it???? You are wasting your, and everyone elses time! You are just a bitter and twisted person who has failed to carve out the career that you want. Even the greenest schoolboy wannabe on this site can see this, so why can't you? Please take a hint and post only USEFUL info in the future.....

[Warwick Hunt]

GOOD ON YA GUV!

This is a rumour and NEWS forum! Check you link!

I always read his posts as they come from the media. You do not have to agree with thier content.

As this is a NEWS forum, those who bash the GUV for the NEWS items he posts, must resort to 'head in the sand' living. If a reporters news is printed in black and white, we all need to hear it!

My industry is is in free fall due to PPP. Personally I would rather hear the bad rumours and news. Add a pinch of salt, but be prepared!

[Notso Fantastic]

Oh God! He's not only registered his Guvnerd name, but several others he uses to support himself when he gets criticised! Now he's pretending to be someone else as well! He must be up to 5000 posts now!

[exeng]

Not So,

I agree with you, this man (menace) appears in so many different guises on this forum.

I appreciate that it is correct that everybody should be allowed their opinion but is there anyway the moderators here can stop an individual posing as several different people; and so adding to the weight of his weird opinions?


Regards
Exeng

[TimeisShort]

BASIL FAULTY & NOT SO FANTASTIC ..

Basil ..
You mentioned you do your very best to
" Resist the Temptation " of replying to any Topics started by ' The Guvnor ' .
You make it sound like your suffering from an addiction that's been impossible to shake .
May I suggest enrolling in your Local Bowls-Club to take your mind of the craving .

NotSoFantastic ..
I find it extremely odd that you spend SO MUCH time staring at your Computer-Monitor searching fervently for ' The Guvnor's ' postings . Once again , with your Interests listed as " Enjoying Life " , you might do us all the liberty on enlightening us on what you actually do to enjoy yourself that could be described as RATIONAL .
Such a habit of STALKING and posting immature remarks is very troubling behaviour considering your claim of being a BA Pilot .
It would be reasonable to conclude that most Airlines would be very concerned about such behaviour and would most likely haul you in for a PSYCHOLOGICAL Assessment to determine your FIT for such a responsible position .
________________________________

The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects.