British Airways to cut 400 cabin crew jobs

By GARETH MACKIE
Published on 04/12/2012 09:58

British Airways has announced plans to cut hundreds of jobs among senior members of its cabin crew, but insisted there would be no compulsory redundancies.

The airline has entered into a 90-day consultation with the Unite union about the possibility of making voluntary redundancy available to 400 cabin crew staff.

Those being offered the redundancy package would be senior cabin crew employees, such as pursers and cabin service directors who work exclusively on either long-haul or short-haul services.

The package will not be available to those whose work is categorised as “mixed” fleet, who operate on both long-haul and short-haul flights.

A BA spokesman said: “This is a purely voluntary scheme. We have no plans to make any compulsory redundancies.”

The group has around 14,000 cabin crew in total and last year ended a damaging 18-month dispute with staff that had been sparked by cost-cutting moves.

BA is part of the International Airlines Group, which also owns the troubled Spanish airline Iberia. Last month, Iberia warned its staff that it was in a “fight for survival” as it unveiled plans to cut 4,500 jobs in an attempt to stem its losses.