British Airways to axe 500 jobs

British Airways have announced that they are to cut 500 jobs over the next two years at its regional airline, CitiExpress, which flies short-haul routes in the UK and Europe.

Scottish workers are likely to be the worst affected by the changes, which will include the closure of BA's reporting base at Aberdeen and the scrapping of two loss-making routes – from Cardiff to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

However, staff in Jersey and Belfast will also be affected, as it has been announced that crew reporting bases in both areas will also close. Up to 40 jobs could be lost in Belfast alone.

British Airways has cut thousands of jobs in order to tackle the falling demand for airline travel, as well as growing competition from budget airlines, such as Easyjet and Go, on European short-haul routes.

CitiExpress, which was created by BA in March by combining two of its subsidiaries – British Regional Airlines and Brymon – decided that the job cuts were necessary after carrying out a regional operations review, its own version of BA' 'Future Size and Shape' review, which was completed in February.

The company have also announced that it will withdraw 12 loss-making regional routes altogether, in order to achieve cost savings of £20 million per year by 2004. Among the routes set to go is BA's service between Belfast and Sheffield – its other seven routes, however, will remain unaffected.

Overall, capacity on regional routes will be reduced by eight per cent. However, the shake-up will also include the opening of two new routes and more flights on its nine most important routes. Two more units – BA Regional and Manx Airlines – will also be consolidated into CitiExpress later this year.

A BA spokesman has reportedly said that staff at Aberdeen will be offered work elsewhere within the airline, which is set to hold talks with the unions. It is hoped that losses will be kept to minimum through redeployment.

David Evans, Head of BA's UK operations, said: "We are laying the platform for growth by getting our business in shape."

(KMcA)