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‘Crisis of global proportions’: British Airways boss warns of job losses due to coronavirus

Alex Cruz says BA ‘will be parking aircraft in a way we have never had to before’

Simon Calder
Friday 13 March 2020 17:09 GMT
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Cruz warns of ‘crisis of global proportions like no other’
Cruz warns of ‘crisis of global proportions like no other’

British Airways staff have been warned by their chief executive that the airline’s survival is at stake.

“Please do not underestimate the seriousness of this for our company,” said Alex Cruz in an internal video message.

He told staff that the coronavirus crisis was more serious than 9/11, the Sars outbreak or the financial crash of 2009 – a “crisis of global proportions like no other we have known”.

As a result, he said, BA is “suspending routes and will be parking aircraft in a way we have never had to before”.

“We can no longer sustain our current levels of employment,” Mr Cruz said.

British Airways makes a large slice of its revenue from transatlantic flights – particularly in premium classes. While the UK is excluded from US president Donald Trump’s ban on European visitors, it has been extremely hard hit by the slump in business travel and the drying up of new leisure bookings.

BA’s revenues will also be damaged by the new advice from the US Centres for Disease Control for Americans to avoid non-essential travel to 29 European countries. Although the UK is not among them, many passengers would normally transit via London Heathrow. In addition, the warning will discourage US visitors to Britain.

British Airways has declined to comment when The Independent approached them.

The warning came as Eurocontrol in Brussels said flights were one-sixth down on the corresponding day a year ago – representing 4,600 fewer departures than on the equivalent Thursday in 2019.

Traffic at Italian airports is down 70 per cent.

Meanwhile the troubled airline Norwegian is seeking immediate financial support from the government in Oslo to avoid breaking its financial covenants.

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