BUSINESS NEWS


Airlines and airports defend Covid-era decisions to MPs


Phil Davies


A senior British Airways executive defended the carrier’s Covid-era job cuts, arguing the airline was in a “precarious position” as the pandemic grounded flights. BA chief corporate affairs and


sustainability officer Lisa Tremble told MPs on the Transport Select Committee last week: “We were flying about 5% of our schedule, losing £20 million a day. “When the bulk of our colleagues


left the business in August [2020], there was no guarantee furlough would continue.” Responding to MPs’ criticism


of BA’s ‘fire and rehire’ policy, she said: “The business was in a really precarious position and the decision was taken to protect as many jobs as possible [and] downsize the company. “I accept it caused a lot of


problems and mistrust. [But] the business took the right decisions at that time given the circumstances we were facing – [with] no idea when there would be a vaccine [or] how long the restrictions would continue.”


EasyJet predicts £545m profit for summer quarter


EasyJet heralded a record bounce-back as it projected an operating profit of up to £545 million for the summer quarter in a trading update last week. The carrier forecast a pre-tax


travelweekly.co.uk BA says


making staff redundant in


2020 was the ‘right decision at that time’


Explaining BA’s spate of


cancellations this year, Tremble said: “We took the decision around Easter to match the schedule to the resources we had. Over the summer we took out 13% of our schedule to build resilience into the system and make sure we got as many people away as possible. It worked. In August, we had cancellations of 0.13% which is 28 flights.” EasyJet chief commercial officer


Sophie Dekkers told the committee: “There is a challenge across the industry in terms of recruitment. We’re working closely with our ground-handling partners on how we can support them. It’s getting easier as each month goes by.”


Gatwick chief executive Stewart


Wingate pointed out ground handling at Gatwick is contracted by airlines but said: “It’s an area we have to work together on to fix.” Wingate noted Gatwick operated


until the end of May with little disruption but then saw congestion at check-in and a rise in same-day flight cancellations to 12 a day. “That led us to decide that if we


didn’t act we’d have severe disruption over the summer,” he said. “Hence we gave notice we were going to limit movements to 825 a day in July and 850 in August.” Tremble said BA had raised


Heathrow ground-handlers’ salaries from £25,000 to £28,000.


IAG reports ‘no sign of weakness in forward sales’


International Airlines Group (IAG) reported a “better-than- expected” summer performance and no signs of weakness in forward bookings in a trading update. The group, which owns BA,


Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, forecast operating profits for the three months to September 30 would be close to €1.2 billion. It reported trading during


the quarter “has been better than expected due to passenger revenue strength” and noted: “Forward bookings remain at expected levels for the time of year, with no indication of weakness. Our fourth-quarter expectations remain unchanged.” IAG shares jumped by as


much as 10% following the announcement. Full results for the nine months to September 30 are due on October 28. Lufthansa Group raised


its full-year adjusted earnings forecast to more than €1 billion based on preliminary results for the third quarter to September, noting revenue more than doubled year on year to €10.1 billion.


Johan Lundgren


Yet it reported “strong demand”


and highlighted “rapid growth” at easyJet holidays, saying UK capacity during the October half-term and Christmas week would be back to pre-pandemic levels. EasyJet also reported operations


loss of up to £190 million for the 12 months to September 30, including a loss of £64 million on foreign exchange and £75 million on disruption costs.


had “significantly improved” since the cancellations and disruptions which marked the early summer and said: “Since the start of July, easyJet’s operations normalised, with fourth-quarter


[July to September] on-the-day cancellations below 2019 levels.” However, the carrier noted:


“Some areas of the European airline industry continue to have challenges outside of easyJet’s control, for example air traffic control.” EasyJet chief executive Johan


Lundgren reported a “step change in ancillary revenue” and said easyJet holidays made “a profitable contribution in its first full year of operations”.


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PICTURES: Shutterstock/Jacob Lund; One Plus One Media/Steve Leach


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