Another new blow to Gatwick Airport amid Covid-19 outbreak

British Airways announced this week that it is to make 12,000 of its 47.000 staff redundant because of a drastic drop in business,

More than 22,000 of the airline’s employees have already been furloughed.

While most of the airline’s operations are out of Heathrow, it is likely that Gatwick will also be affected.

Last week Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said it could take the airport up to four years to get back to pre-virus levels of business.

And in a letter to staff this week British Airways chairman and chief executive Alex Cruz spoke of ‘preparing for a different future.’

He said: “There is no Government bailout standing by for BA and we cannot expect the taxpayer to offset salaries indefinitely. Any money we borrow now will only be short-term and will not address the longer-term challenges we will face.

“We do not know when countries will reopen their borders or when the lockdowns will lift, and so we have to reimagine and reshape our airline and create a new future for our people, our customers and the destinations we serve.”

He said the scale of the challenge required “substantial change so we are in a competitive and resilient position, not just to address the immediate Covid-19 pandemic, but also to withstand any longer-term reductions in customer demand, economic shocks or other events that could affect us.

“However challenging this is, the longer we delay difficult decisions, the fewer options will be open to us.”

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