British Airways (BA/BAW) has said it has reached an agreement with the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) over the future of pilots employed by the airline.
According to BALPA the deal will see 270 pilots being made redundant and pay cuts of up to 20% for the remaining flight crew.
The pay cut would reduce over time and expected to be at 8% within two years.
A spokesperson for British Airways parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) said “International Airlines Group (IAG) welcomed last night’s announcement by British Airways’ pilots’ union BALPA that it intends to hold a consultative ballot of its members in relation to the proposed restructuring and redundancy agreement reached between the union and the airline. This is in response to the COVID-19 crisis affecting the aviation industry. BALPA has recommended to its members that they approve the proposals.”
BALPA was not so upbeat about the deal though, which came about after three months of negotiations, General Secretary Brian Strutton, said: “It is hugely disappointing that during our extensive negotiations British Airways would not accept the full package of mitigations we put forward which would have avoided any job losses at all, and at no cost to BA.
“As a result, there will be some compulsory redundancies amongst the pilot community and that is a matter of huge regret.
“Given BA’s intransigence, we have put together the best package we can to save as many jobs as possible.”
It is expected that many of the compulsory redundancies will come from Boeing 747 pilots as the type is being retired by British Airways.
