British Airways workers face to be sacked at London’s Gatwick Airport as airline company declares cost-cutting and budget lowering plans.

London / NationalTurk – Nearly thousand of British Airways workers at Gatwick Airport London face to lose their jobs or be transferred to another company under source quenching and cost-saving plans announced by the prominent airline today. Hundreds of British Airways workers at Gatwick Airport are set to lose their jobs or be transferred to another company under cost-saving plans unveiled by the airline.

British Airways has announced it has begun a consultation to cut a number of roles at Gatwick Airport

BA is proposing to outsource rampwork including baggage, de-icing and coaching operations, and the arrivals baggage service. BA has also said it is considering combining roles within customer services.

A spokesman for British Airways stated: ‘ We hope to agree a proposal with the trade unions to offer to every ramp workers a new role with a new external supplier, under TUPE transfer legislation.’

‘ We will do all we can to minimise the impact on people in the British Airways customer service teams, but it is likely there may be some staff reductions in this area and among the management team and support structure.

“As a traditional full service carrier with a long history, we have to meet the challenge of transforming our cost-base to compete more effectively in the shorthaul market, while continuing to deliver outstanding service and value for our customers.”

BA has also announced it has begun a consultant to integrate BMI into its Heathrow operations. BA’s proposals will secure 1,500 jobs at the airport including 1,100 cabin crew, pilot and engineer positions and 400 passenger services roles at Terminal 1.

However, the proposals could result in 1,200 redundancies. BA said without its acquisition of the company, BMI could have had to close which would have resulted in 2,700 job losses.

British Airways to cut jobs at London’s Gatwick

British Airways stated jobs of 400 ramp workers, including baggage handlers, will be outsourced, while 170 customer service staff and management support employees will be laid off under the proposals.

British Airways issued in an official statement: ‘We have begun consultation with our trade unions on proposals to transform the way British Airways works at Gatwick Airport.

‘They are part of a wide-ranging plan to build a stronger and more cost-competitive business and safeguard jobs for the future.

‘Proposals include outsourcing the ramp work, including baggage, de-icing and coaching operations, and the arrivals baggage service and combining roles within customer services.

‘We hope to agree a proposal with the trade unions to offer anyone who works on the ramp a role with a new external supplier, under TUPE transfer legislation.

‘We will do all we can to minimise the impact on people in the customer service teams, but it is likely there may be some staff reductions in this area and among the management team and support structure.

‘As a traditional full-service carrier with a long history, we have to meet the challenge of transforming our cost base to compete more effectively in the short-haul market, while continuing to deliver outstanding service and value for our customers.’

The news comes just a few weeks after the chief executive of IAG, the parent company of BA, highlighted the problems facing the industry as he presented the group’s annual results.

Willie Walsh said at the time that rising oil prices, the UK’s air passenger duty and industrial action at Iberia – which merged with BA to form IAG last year – are among the worries facing the industry.

British Airways firings launched

Earlier in the month, Walsh joined forces with the bosses of three other major airlines – Virgin, easyJet and Ryanair – to urge Chancellor George Osborne to scrap air passenger duty (APD).

The airlines claim the increasing taxes on flying are stifling the economy’s recovery.

The chiefs called on Mr Osborne to ‘suspend the April 1 rises in APD, and those planned up to 2016, while the Treasury commissions an independent study of the economic effects of this job-destroying tax’.

Their call was backed by a report from the World Travel & Tourism Council, which claimed that abolishing APD would create 91,000 jobs and add £4.2billion to the economy in 12 months.

Last December IAG signalled jobs losses would follow its binding agreement to buy troubled airline BMI for £172.5million.

Walsh warned BMI the job losses were on the horizon in early 2012, but could not at the time confirm the number of potential job cuts and added that it would secure a ‘significant number of high quality jobs’.

The news are regarded as dire, as London Olympics approach fast.

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