British Airways, a unit of International Consolidated Airlines Group, will cut 350 pilots and put another 300 in a “pool” for re-hire when needed as part of a deal reached with cockpit crew, The Sun reported.
Most of the pilots facing compulsory redundancies worked from Gatwick airport in London, according to the report, which didn’t say where the information came from. Captains and first officers who are placed in the pool don’t currently have an aircraft to work on and will remain on half-pay, while all other operating flight crew will take a 15% pay cut for now, it said.
Like its peers, IAG has been ravaged by the effective shutdown of air travel brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, which is expected to result in $84 billion of losses for global airlines in 2020. It has proposed a pay deal for its flight attendants that would guarantee 80% of current basic salaries while limiting the need for mass job cuts.