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Airlines are exaggerating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic to make job cuts, a pilots union in the UK has warned.<\/p>\nAirlines are exaggerating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic to make job cuts, a pilots union in the UK has warned.<\/p>\n
Brian Strutton, general secretary of Balpa, told British politicians that carriers are looking to \u201ctake advantage of the crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n
British Airways, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic are among the airlines that have announced plans to make thousands of staff redundant.<\/p>\n
IAG, which owns British Airways, has said it does not expect demand for air travel to recover before 2023, while Gatwick Airport has said it could take up to four years.<\/p>\n
Giving evidence to the Commons Transport Select Committee in the UK, Mr Strutton said: \u201cI believe that airlines are exaggerating the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe predictions that some of the airline leaders are saying, of up to a five or six-year recovery, is not in line with industry standard predictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week, Iata, the International Air Transport Association \u2013 which is usually the touchstone for these things \u2013 issued its new projections, and said that by the end of 2022 we would be back to 2019 levels.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re in a trough at the moment, we will be coming out of it over the next two-and-a-half years, and I think that airlines are egging the pudding too much to take advantage of the crisis to make changes and downsize their workforce unnecessarily.<\/p>\n
Mr Strutton went on: \u201cWe have threats of job losses starting on the 15th of June.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one immediate thing that needs to be done is those knee-jerk decisions taken now \u2013 in isolation by different airlines \u2013 need to be called out, need to be stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment should be saying, \u2018it\u2019s not the right time to be taking those decisions whilst we work out a holistic way forward for the industry\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diana Holland, assistant general secretary for transport at the UK’s Unite union, told the committee that she is \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about the future of the aviation industry.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIf there isn\u2019t revenue coming in to the industry it\u2019s not just the airlines (affected), it\u2019s the airports, it\u2019s everything down the line and of course all the people that work there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are extremely worried about the future, and that\u2019s why we need to come together now to look at what plan we have to restart, to rebuild confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Holland acknowledged that there may be \u201ctemporary changes\u201d to jobs, pay, terms and conditions, but stressed these must not be \u201cdecimated for the future\u201d.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThis is about all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n