[PhilipHart]

The original hypothesis is not looking quite so off-the-wall as might at first have seemed the case :-

SAS TEMPORARILY HALT MOST OF THE TRAFFIC

[rferguson]

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/ba-owner-cut-capacity-75-071157529.html

Likely to cut 75% flying. Willie Walsh to delay his retirement.

However:

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/ba-owner-not-asked-state-084043480.html

BA has not asked the government for state aid.

The TU’s have emailed members to advise that they are meeting with Alex Cruz today. They have made it clear to members

‘As your trade union we must now work with British Airways to ensure the company’s long term survival and our members’ jobs. To do this, we will need to work out a way to balance the impact of the virus itself, the resulting travel restrictions and the financial impact upon the whole airline industry and the preservation of our members’ jobs, terms & conditions and earnings. We must also ensure that any necessary short term measures do not become an opportunity for long term gain, from those within BA viewing this situation as an opportunity do so.’

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ImissConcorde, DavidSmith2

[DavidSmith2]

News reporting that BA has 9 billion GBP of cash reserves. So they will be hoping they can hold out and then cash in as others fold.

[BackOfThePlane]

[postquote quote=993626][/postquote]

The planet could be under attack millions of 100 foot monsters from far, far away…..and certain TUs would still be entirely focussed on terms & conditions, tea breaks etc.

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alainboy56, MartynSinclair

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=993647][/postquote]

To be fair the last time BA had financial challenges they squeezed a pay cut from pilots – did they give anything back when they were making big profits?

Bit the same as EC261, when you routinely deny customers in the good times, then don’t expect sympathy in the more difficult times…..

[rferguson]

[quote quote=993647]The planet could be under attack millions of 100 foot monsters from far, far away…..and certain TUs would still be entirely focussed on terms & conditions, tea breaks etc.[/quote]

While this is true there will also always be large corporate institutions that are looking at any opportunity to gauge pay, T&C’s.

BA just posted a profit of £1.9Billion. Know how much profit share it gave to employees (well front line ones anyway). ZERO. And this decision was taken way before corona.

So you find that in terms of ‘loyalty’ to the company, staff have very little on the whole. Any temporary measures we take will be entirely to protect our own butts.

I think the unions are being reasonable. For a defined period of time it should absolutely NOT be ‘business as usual’ in terms of our tea breaks etc. But i’m sorry, when in 18 – 24 mths time BA is announcing another HUGE profit (just as they did last time we were in a ‘fight for survival’) I expect to be on my regular pay, T&C’s.

Sorry to be so blunt but BA and its history of poor Industrial Relations, selfishness and greed have bred this sense of feeling among nearly all staff.

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stevescoots, TupeloKid, Montysaurus, Swissdiver, PatJordan, travelworld2, IanFromHKG, Jacob, SimonS1, K1ngston, tomwjsimpson, PhilipHart, scotscrew, capetonianm, fatbear, Johnnyg

[rferguson]

Just thought i’d provide an update on the situation at BA. Although truth be told there is little in the sense of new information.

Unlike almost every other carrier BA has still not made an official statement of what routes it will operate, what options will be for staff. Although I do appreciate the situation is very fluid and changing by the day (if not by the hour!).

I HAVE seen a communication to the pilots management where the most revealing bits are:
– entire longhaul fleet to be grounded with exception of the 787 and A350 aircraft.
– terminal 5C and T3 will be closed (i’m not sure if T3 relates to the terminal as a whole or just BA ops there).

The unions and BA are still locked in talks. I do not think this bodes well. Again, no official communications have been made but general consensus is that a big sticking point in coming to an agreement is BA’s refusal to ask the government for help (as Virgin and most other airlines have asked…BEGGED for). The union itself has stated to members that pressuring the government for assistance is essential. Surely if the situation is that grave it should be BA’s first point of call? Yet Willie Walsh has said he has no plans to ask as IAG are sitting on around £9.7B. So in the meantime us staff are sitting around waiting waiting to hear our fate.

BA have also announced that they are shutting down ‘Yammer’ which is like a corporate Facebook where employees and management can engage. This is incredible given the times needed for up to date two way communication with a remote workforce. Many are speculating this is motivated by BA’s desire for a ‘one way’ form of communication going forward.

Also far down the list of priorities the new uniform has been pushed back to next year (was planned to be debuted last year). Not that many of us could care less about that right now!

8 users thanked author for this post.

capetonianm, Montysaurus, tomwjsimpson, ASK1945, ImissConcorde, MartynSinclair, Johnnyg, PhilipHart

[MartynSinclair]

Maybe I am listening to much news, but it does astound me that anyone is actually flying, apart from those who need to get home to family and loved ones. Up until a week or so ago PJ’s were being highly utilised, however, even those trips are now drying up.

[SimonS1]

I’m afraid even in times of national emergency, Willie Walsh will look for an opportunity to get one over on competition, airports, staff etc.

On the other hand I would also find it a bit odd for a company to come running to the taxpayer when they have almost £10bn in the bank. Plus who would you go running to, bearing in mind IAG is a Spanish headquartered organisation.

Some companies will come out the end either nationalised or partially so.

Communication at BA Holidays has I must say been pretty good, they seem quite well organised, full briefing and individual sessions yesterday and have staff set up working from home quite quickly.

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stevescoots, ASK1945

[rferguson]

Just to clarify a point I made in my last post ‘T5C and T3 closing’.

T3 closing relates to BA only. From 29MAR BA will operate ALL flights from T5.

An update on IA : BA pilots have reached an initial agreement with BA where they will take two weeks unpaid leave for each month of april and may. I guess this will then be reviewed later.

Us cabin crew are still awaiting our fate.

1 user thanked author for this post.

PhilipHart

[ImissConcorde]

BA staff in Terminal 3 only work there. They are not “cross terminal” so unable to work in T5. The first redundancies?

[LondonCaterer]

I flew into Heathrow this morning on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow. Now thinking about it, looking over the runways towards T3, there was a distinct lack of aircraft ‘parked up’ at T3, and not just BA , plus a much larger than usual number of BA aircraft parked on the remote stands at T5.
But then again, T4 was like a ghost terminal, and on arrival at tube station at T4 there was just myself and one other waiting for a train…and this was at 09.45 !!

[cwoodward]

BA is still running a daily A380 flight to HKG.
It is difficult to believe that there is a true demand for a A380 daily to HKG ?
Todays flight is about to land

[fatbear]

Probably plenty of freight on-board. Also a few people heading for Australia who now have to go via Hong Kong with BA as Singapore has banned intransit passengers ?

[cwoodward]

Hi ‘fatbear’
What you say re freight is possible but there are freighters running from UK to HKG. The A380 has not a lot of belly space for its size compared to a A350
As for paxs no one will be allowed into ether AU or NZ and all into HKG today will have to go to government quarantine for 14 days. HKG has effectively closed its borders to all including transit passengers from tomorrow.

[Author]

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