British Airways to slash capital expenditure by 20 per cent
04 Jul 2009
UK flag carrier British Airways has announced a cutback in capital expenditure for the financial year 2009-10 of 20 per cent, on the back of news that passenger traffic slid a further 5 per cent in June 2009. Trying to counter an economic downturn, which has badly impacted air travel, British Airways said it was slashing expenses by 20 per cent to £580m ($952m) from £725m.
It said it would also defer delivery of a batch of Airbus A380 super jumbos by six months.
The first six of 12 A380s on order will now be delivered late by an average of five months, with the first delivery still due in 2012, the airline said.
"The schedule for the remaining six A380s has been extended by an average of two years with the final aircraft arriving in 2016," it added.
As part of ongoing cost-saving measures, BA asked 800 staffers to work for no salary for up to a month. A 30 June deadline for the BA management and unions to agree a cost-saving plan lapsed without any agreement. Now, BA has asked conciliation service Acas to intervene.
BA is seeking 3,000 redundancies among crew and administrative staff, with roughly 6,000 staffers taking unpaid leave, working part-time, or agreeing to various cost-saving measures.
It has a total of 40,000 staff.