Walsh defends BA job cuts in face of state help on pay

Airlines across the world have grounded aircraft as passenger numbers collapse

Willie Walsh, the boss of British Airways' owner, IAG, has defended the firm's decision to make 12,000 staff redundant.

He was asked by MPs why the government's job retention scheme wasn't enough to halt the job cuts.

The Treasury's job retention scheme funds 80% of staff wages for those put on furlough and was brought in to reduce job losses due to coronavirus.

But Mr Walsh said the cash would only buoy BA for a matter of days.

BA has furloughed 22,600 of its workers.

Mr Walsh said three months of the government's payments would only account for "less than 10 days of cash burn" for British Airways.

"That scheme gives us about 10 additional days, it doesn't give us months," he told MPs.

"Anybody who believes we can sit back and wait for months because we are receipt of the job retention scheme - I'm afraid they misunderstand the scale of the challenge that we face."

He praised the scheme as "significant" but said he would still have to press on with redundancies and said they were announced in line with legal guidance.

"The job retention scheme makes clear you can be made redundant on the job retention scheme," he said.

'Survival'

He denied he was making the move during a time when union leaders can't call strikes and are in a weak negotiating position.

"This has nothing to do with industrial relations this has to do with the survival of the company," he said.

"The sole objective of the actions we have taken is so that we still have a business."

Mr Walsh said a proposed two week quarantine period for travellers coming to the UK would spell bad news for the travel industry.

In a wide-ranging session with parliament's Transport Committee, he insisted that passengers owed refunds by the airline would receive them, although he said he couldn't supply figures on how many people are waiting and when they would receive them.

On the measures needed to make air travel safe, he said he would work with regulators to come up with a plan.

"We will take all measures and we are working with regulators in what we hope will be a common system," across at least Europe and possibly globally, he said.

Mr Walsh said a proposed two week quarantine period for travellers coming to the UK would spell bad news for the travel industry.

"There's nothing positive in anything I heard the Prime Minister say yesterday," he told MPs.

When asked why travellers from France will not be quarantined over, for example, Germany, he said: "That's the bit I don't understand.

"We will have to wait and see the final details of what the Prime Minister intends to do."

He added that the quarantine measures will mean his company will have to review its plan to return to 50% capacity by July,