LONDON, March 20 ― British Airways pilots will face a 50 per cent pay cut to their basic salary for April and May, as the airline seeks to reduce its cost to try survive the coronavirus crisis, the Financial Times (FT) reported yesterday.
British Airways in a letter to its staff said it had agreed to initial measures with BALPA, the UK-based pilot union that aims to address “the immediate threat to the business in the face of Covid-19 and the unprecedented impact this is having on the airline,” the newspaper reported.
But a union source told FT that pilots' pay cut would work out to less than 50 per cent based on an agreement that pilots can temporarily suspend their pension contributions.
The BALPA denied that there would be 50 per cent pay cuts.
“Discussions have not been finalised and we are not commenting on live negotiations but we can say that reports of 50 per cent pay cuts for pilots in BA are wrong,” a BALPA spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
The pay cut would be split over three months, the FT said.
Last week, British Airways Chief Executive Officer Alex Cruz told its staff of plans to cut jobs and ground aircraft to tackle the situation caused by coronavirus. ― Reuters
