American Airlines is restructuring its UK operation which is expected to lead to widespread job losses.
Details will be announced by the end of the month, in the meantime staff based at the bankrupt airline’s London headquarters fear redundancy as their roles could be transferred to the US.
The restructure is part of an overhaul of the airline, which has been operating under Chapter 11 – which protects it from its creditors – since last November.
Its parent company AMR Corporation revealed yesterday that it is considering merging with another US carrier. Rival US Airways is keen to do a deal with American, but the latter is understood to be considering other partners, including JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Virgin America.
Such a merger could impact on American’s codeshare agreement with British Airways on transatlantic routes and on the oneworld alliance, of which both BA and American are members.
American recently moved its London headquarters from Hounslow to share BA’s Waterside HQ.
By Linsey McNeill
