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Airlines are exaggerating coronavirus impact, union boss tells MPs
Pilots’ union BALPA has told MPs that airlines are ‘taking advantage’ of the coronavirus crisis to cut thousands of jobs.
General secretary Brian Strutton said carriers were exaggerating the long-term impact of the pandemic on travel in order to reduce their workforce.
British Airways has announced 12,000 jobs are to go, Virign is cutting more than 3,000 jobs and Ryanair has also announced 3,000 job cuts, including 360 UK pilots.
BA parent IAG has said it doesn’t expect demand for air travel to recover before 2023, while Gatwick Airport has said it could take up to four years.
However, Strutton told the Commons Transport Select Committee: ‘I believe that airlines are exaggerating the problem.
"The predictions that some of the airline leaders are saying, of up to a five or six-year recovery, is not in line with industry standard predictions."
He said IATA has forecast that air travel will recover to 2019 levels by the end of 2022.
"We’re in a trough at the moment, we will be coming out of it over the next two-and-a-half years, and I think that airlines are egging the pudding too much to take advantage of the crisis to make changes and downsize their workforce unnecessarily," he said.
Strutton said airlines needed to be ‘called out’ on their ‘knee-jerk’ reactions.
"Government should be saying it’s not the right time to be taking those decisions whilst we work out a holistic way forward for the industry."
Aviation minister Kelly Tolhurst told MPs that the threat of job losses ‘keeps me awake at night’.
"My priority… is very much how we work with industry and all stakeholders in that restart and recovery process.There are many, many challenges, some which will be not easy to overcome but ultimately we need to work together as an industry and internationally, in order to get our planes up and flying again, our airports working, and also keeping our workforce in work."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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