Willie Walsh ‘flies the flag’

In his role as Chief Executive of British Airways’ holding company IAG, Willie Walsh has been doing the rounds of the news media ‘flying the flag’ (see last week’s BTN)

IAG, on behalf of BA, easyJet and Ryanair, has issued a formal statement launching their legal action against what it calls the UK Government’s "flawed quarantine law".

On the industrial front British Airways has been accused of "taking advantage of a global pandemic in order to decimate its workforce", an employee told LBC Radio’s Iain Dale, with another saying she found out the devastating news through listening to the station.  Rumour has it that the redundancy programme will be published today (15 June).

Mr Walsh was in a forthright mood: "I clearly don't want to upset anybody but I have to be very clear with the truth.  The situation we face is pretty dire, the airline industry is effectively grounded," Mr Walsh said. "We want to engage in consultations with the staff representatives...to make sure everybody is fully aware of how difficult the situation is and to work with those representatives to address the challenge that we face."

Mr Walsh insisted British Airways is fulfilling its legal obligations to inform representatives about potential plans and asked for staff to acknowledge this.

Iain asked why BA was acting in this way when other carriers are not, the chief responded: "The legal environment under which we have to operate in British Airways is different to the legal environment in Ireland and in Spain."

At the time there was no sign of BA Chief Executive Alex Cruz with one listener calling him “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, an evasive character in English literature. “We seek him here – we seek him there!" He has since surfaced to selected media, who have tried to give a balanced view. Still nothing on the BA press site.  

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