BA PILOTS AGREE TO TAKE PAY CUT

BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) pilots agreed to a 2.6 per cent pay cut yesterday, as part of a package of measures designed to save the ailing airline £26m.

The move comes as the firm’s directors prepare themselves for what is expected to be a stormy annual meeting today.

The pilot’s union Balpa said 94 per cent of its members voted for the cut in pay, agreeing to take up shares in the ailing flag-carrier instead.

In return, the pilots will receive £13m of BA shares — about £4,300 worth each — in three years’ time.

The pilots, who earn an average salary of around £80,000, will also see their flying allowances cut by 20 per cent.

“Our research indicates that BA is facing a real business challenge and this is not the case of the employer crying wolf,” said Balpa’s secretary general Jim McAuslan.

However, other workers at the airline are more resistant to making the sacrifices requested by chief executive Willie Walsh, who says the firm is in a “fight for survival” because of rising costs and a fall in demand due to the global economic downturn.

BA posted record losses of £401m earlier this year – £331m of which came in the final quarter alone – and scrapped its dividend.

Walsh has asked thousands of staff to take pay cuts or work for nothing for a month in a bid to save cash.

A deadline for agreeing 3,700 job cuts and a two-year pay freeze with cabin crew and administration staff passed without a deal on 30 June, and talks are continuing to try to break the deadlock.

An angry GMB union, which represents many of these BA workers, says it will parade 12 lemmings in cages outside the airline’s annual meeting at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster today, and will hold up placards saying, “Willie, time to head to the departure gate?”

The union will also hand out leaflets to shareholders as they arrive, asking for their support for a fairer agreement for its members.

The GMB points out that last year the airline made a record profit of £992m.

It emerged over the weekend that Walsh had won backing for a potential rights issue to raise up to £500m from the firm’s biggest shareholders in a bid to repair the airline’s balance sheet.

BA said: “We are pleased that BA pilots have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the cost saving package. Talks with our remaining trade unions, facilitated by the conciliation service Acas, are taking place.”

Walsh, who has agreed to work for nothing in July and sacrifice his monthly salary of £61,000, says the airline’s losses are running at almost £3m a day.