5th May 2020 14:30
(Alliance News) - Virgin Atlantic on Tuesday said it will axe over 3,000 jobs and move its operations from London's Gatwick airport to Heathrow, as part of measures to "reshape and resize" the business amid the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the travel and aviation industry.
The airline, which is majority owned by British businessman Richard Branson's Virgin Group, also plans to retire all of its seven Boeing 747-400 aircraft, with four Airbus A330-200 aircraft retiring in early 2022 as planned.
The Crawley, England-based company said it continues to explore all available options to obtain additional external funding and remains in "constructive" talks with several stakeholders including the UK government.
Airlines around the globe have furloughed or shed thousands of staff in a bid to stay afloat, as the majority of the world's air travel remains restricted.
International Consolidated Airlines SA-owned British Airways has begun consultation on up to 12,000 redundancies, while Ryanair Holdings PLC has decided to cut 3,000 jobs.
"In order for the airline to emerge from the crisis, regrettably it must reduce the number of people employed and today the company is announcing a planned reduction of 3,150 jobs across all functions. Working closely with unions BALPA and Unite, a company-wide consultation period of 45 days begins today," Virgin Atlantic said.
"As Virgin Atlantic aims to establish itself as the sustainability leader, it will fly only wide-body, twin-engine aircraft from London Heathrow and Manchester to the most popular destinations. It will be moving its flying programme from London Gatwick to London Heathrow, with the intention of retaining its slot portfolio at London Gatwick, so it can return in line with customer demand," it added.
Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive Shai Weiss said: "We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none has been as devastating as Covid-19 and the associated loss of life and livelihood for so many.
"It is crucial that we return to profitability in 2021. This will mean taking steps to reshape and resize Virgin Atlantic in line with demand, while always keeping our people and customers at the heart of all we do".
The British Airline Pilots Association termed the Virgin Atlantic job cuts as "devastating" and said that without UK government support the aviation industry will be "decimated".
BALPA estimated 426 pilots at Virgin Atlantic were at risk of losing jobs and asked the UK government to "call a moratorium on job losses in aviation and lead a planned recovery".
By Tapan Panchal; [email protected]
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