OAG Travel News

Aviation crisis never more serious - Walsh

British Airways faces a "fight for survival", ceo Willie Walsh told employees.

Writing in the airline's staff newspaper, Mr Walsh said: "It's critical that we all recognise that the diagnosis for our airline is now critical."

He said the current aviation industry crisis "has never been more serious". Airlines are suffering from a wide-spread slump in demand, a result of the economic downturn.

Europe's three largest network carriers - Air France KLM, Lufthansa and BA - have all recently reported financial losses. Last month BA reported a record loss full year of £401m, its worst result for almost 20 years (see ABTN news May 22).

Mr Walsh said: "There has been a significant shift in consumer attitude, with people wanting more and paying less. And things are getting worse. We haven't yet reached the bottom and everything points towards a protracted downturn."

BA has been in pay and productivity negotiations with trade unions. Mr Walsh said some talks were progressing more slowly than others.

A deadline of June 30 to complete talks with unions has been set, Reuters reported.

BA recently said the current trading environment made it impossible to give a financial forecast for the coming year.

Shares in BA have lost 28% of their value over the last year, valuing the business at £1.79bn pounds, according to reports.

www.ba.com

Source: www.abtn.co.uk report by Andrew Gough