The quarantine announced by the government for travelers entering the United Kingdom makes people cringe. The sector, which is facing a historic crisis, posted on Monday "serious concerns and frustration".
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In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, British airlines and airports urge the British government to reconsider this "no end date" decision to establish two weeks of isolation, "which will worsen an already critical situation for aviation British ” . "People will simply choose not to travel to or from the UK" which will make the sector "incapable of being competitive" as other countries begin to reopen their economies, they say. to be worth.
At Heathrow Airport, usually the busiest in Europe and a hub for global air traffic, the number of travelers fell 97%, according to a statement. Only 200,000, mostly returnees from abroad after the containment began, have traveled. That's normally the number of passengers carried in a single day, said Heathrow, which plans to continue idling until governments suspend containment measures and because of the quarantine that should be put in place.
Airport authorities are calling on London to draw up a roadmap explaining how to reopen the borders and to work with other countries so that passengers can move freely once the pandemic is over. For its part, the company EasyJet requests that the quarantine be "in place only for a short period while the United Kingdom remains in confinement" .
12,000 jobs cut at British Airways
The government's decision weakens airlines a little more like the IAG group, the parent company of British Airways, which denounced it. When questioned by the British Parliament's Transport Committee, Willie Walsh, his boss of the group, insisted that the company was fighting for its survival. “We had planned to resume our flights, quite significantly, in July. I think we will have to review this, " he warned, recalling that he does not expect a return to the level of traffic before the Covid-19 before 2023 or 2024, or even 2026. Willie Walsh has by moreover justified the abolition of 12,000 jobs at British Airways, or more than a quarter of the workforce, by saying that it is a question of "survival" for the company which earns the most profits but also has the highest fixed costs of the IAG group, according to him. "Everyone who thinks that (going through this crisis) will be easy is dreaming," he insisted.
Despite his justifications, the boss of IAG angered many employees accusing him of taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to reconsider their contractual advantages and all aspects of their working conditions. "I feel betrayed, abandoned and disgusted," confided to AFP David, flight attendant for thirty years at British Airways. Flying was a kid's dream, and at 50 he climbed the ladder to become a flight attendant. Like most of the group's employees, he is currently on short-time work and is waiting to learn more about the wave of job cuts announced.
Revise the contractual conditions of employees
“Obviously, when we learned that, the employees (of BA) were very upset but now it turns to anger. (...) We were expecting changes in the way we would fly in the future, the number of hours flown, wage cuts (...) because the crisis is unprecedented but the scale ( changes requested) seems opportunistic to us , ” adds David, whose first name has been changed because he is not allowed to speak to the press.
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It is not so much the number of planned redundancies that goes wrong, but the way to proceed. According to a letter sent by BA management to the Unite union and consulted by AFP, IAG plans to rationalize the different statutes of the cabin crews and to review all the contractual conditions of the employees. The company plans to offer certain employees who will not be dismissed a new contract that will put all their working conditions flat, from disciplinary procedures to performance evaluations with an increase in the flexibility of timetables, routes (short or long haul) and holidays . IAG says that this is the condition for remaining "competitive" given the lasting decline in demand for flights that is looming.
The flight attendant, finally, deplores that the British government does not help more British Airways or the other “viable” companies of the sector in the United Kingdom, whereas “all the European countries supported their air carriers, Spain, France Scandinavia, the Netherlands ” ... In any event, morale is at a low point at British Airways, he concludes, the pandemic which has grounded almost all of the planes in the world occurring especially after a historic BA pilots' strike in the fall before finally securing a salary agreement.
A specific aid plan requested by the unions
Faced with this flood of criticism, the leader replied by ensuring that consultations to mitigate the impact of the layoffs would be held as soon as possible. However, avoiding questions about the questioning of the employees' contract, he assured that IAG is putting into effect a restructuring "in the group as a whole in the face of the greatest crisis that the sector and the companies of IAG have ever faced" .
For their part, the British unions and the Labor party have asked the executive to launch a specific aid plan for the aviation sector. Virgin Atlantic is notably on the verge of bankruptcy and its founder billionaire Richard Branson will sell for 500 million dollars of shares of the space tourism company Virgin Galactic in order to bail out the air carrier and its other activities hit by the pandemic. In addition to the future of certain airlines, it is also that of London's Gatwick airport which is at stake. Virgin Atlantic has decided to stop its activities there for the time being. Willie Walsh said he sees a future for British Airways at Gatwick, which he considers "in many ways better managed than Heathrow . "