Ba To Terminate Temporary Crew And Axe 125 Jobs

[interestrateripoff]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle6835102.ece

British Airways has told its temporary cabin crew that their contracts will be terminated at the end of next month as the airline steps up its cost-cutting drive.

A total of 125 non-permanent staff were e-mailed yesterday and told that they would cease to be employed from October 31.

A further 140 full-time cabin crew have accepted voluntary redundancy and will leave the company at the same time.

BA is seeking 2,000 full-time equivalent job cuts and has warned that compulsory redundancies may be required if it does not reach this target. The airline said today that it hopes that further voluntary schemes, including urging workers to go part time, will be sufficient.

BA has been negotiating the job cuts and new contracts with trade unions since before the summer but the talks have failed to reach a resolution.

A temporary cabin crew member said today: “I’m losing my job without a severance payment, they are just getting rid of us even though I have nearly a year to go on my contract. I also have a gripe about them doing it by e-mail. They needed us during the peak summer months but now they get rid of us in this way.â€

A spokesman for BA, said: "We have a small surplus in the number of our senior grades cabin crew and, combined with our reduced flying programme, we have been able to accept applications for voluntary reductions from the equivalent of 140 cabin crew. We are also releasing 125 cabin crew who are on temporary work contracts."

The jobless recovery via email.

Yet another sector and yet more job cuts.

The jobless recovery is gathering momentum and becoming unstoppable. Pretty soon we will be in full economic jobless recovery.

This will be an economic relief to everyone.

[OnlyMe]

BA are going to have to compete with the low cost carriers.

The low cost carriers have already told some of their airports to go ****** themselves because of their high charges.

High fixed costs, high cost of living = ******ed consumers and ******ed companies on a growing and cascading scale.

[Concrete Jungle]

A sure sign of the beginning of the grounded recovery.

[General Melchett]

How much more recovery can the economy take, do you think, before the whole country experiences recovery?

[interestrateripoff]

How much more jobless recovery can the economy take, do you think, before the whole country experiences recovery?

I think you left out a word?

I'm not certain how many more jobs we need to see go before we can effectively declare this downturn over, clearly it's not a recession.

When the people realise what economic happiness a jobless recovery brings I think we'll be having a huge happiness bubble and central bankers will be in a real flap about what to do.

This jobless recovery is one of the most exciting recoveries I've lived through, it's certainly better than the 90's recovery and I wasn't really aware of the happiness throughout the early 80's.

[OnlyMe]

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Plymo...il/article.html

Plymouth factory set to shut down

Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 11:41

11 readers have commented on this story.

Click here to read their views.

BOSSES at Plymouth’s Gleason Cutting Tools Ltd today told staff they are proposing to shut the factory.

The plant’s 83 workers, and union representatives, were given the grim news at a special meeting this morning.

Management at the Estover factory will enter a 30-day consultation on their proposal next month, with a decision taken in November.

But it seems likely that unless there is a sudden upsurge in demand the plant will shut, resulting in a further blow to the city’s economy.

[OnlyMe]

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/55-Helphi...il/article.html

55 more Helphire jobs to go

Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 08:04

Comment on this story

One of Bath's biggest firms is shedding another 55 jobs after losing a key contract and scrapping a new computer system.

Replacement vehicle supplier Helphire confirmed yesterday it had lost a contract with the AA.

The company, one of Bath's largest private employers, also announced it was scrapping a new IT system which it had been developing for five years.

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

The low cost carriers have already told some of their airports to go ****** themselves because of their high charges.

Not an option for BA, if I understand correctly, because they've signed a long-term contract with BAA for the use of T5 and have pulled a lot of their operations out of Gatwick and Stansted, the slots for which have since been taken by other carriers.

[tim123]

BA are going to have to compete with the low cost carriers.

The low cost carriers have already told some of their airports to go ****** themselves because of their high charges.

These high charges are often of the order of 4-5 pounds per passenger.

Personally I think it's a false economy. It's going to cost the average person far more than 4 pounds extra to get to some out of the way airport like Bournemouth instead of a rail connected one like Stansted.

tim

[Bloo Loo]

No Golden Parachutes at BA.

[HPC001]

These high charges are often of the order of 4-5 pounds per passenger.

Personally I think it's a false economy. It's going to cost the average person far more than 4 pounds extra to get to some out of the way airport like Bournemouth instead of a rail connected one like Stansted.

tim

Not the £60-odd that passengers are actually charged? Well I never...

[SMAC67]

European airlines in ‘desperate situation’

"If the industry cannot make money in the peak summer season, it is clearly in a desperate situation."

That’s the message from the Association of European Airlines (AEA) whose latest data for July showed the overall picture remains depressed, with passenger traffic volume 2.3 per cent below the level of July 2008.

The association said North Atlantic volumes were down 4.3 per cent, the Far East fell 3.9per cent, and cross-border services saw a 3.4 per cent drop.

The AEA said the impact on the overall figure was mitigated slightly by some growth in African and Middle Eastern services.

Capacity reduction, which had been around five per cent in the two previous months, moderated to around 3.2 per cent.

Secretary general Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said: “If the industry cannot make money in the peak summer season, it is clearly in a desperate situation, and our members are reporting ongoing losses.

"If the airlines cannot make money when they are 81.8 per cent full, there is clearly something very wrong with the cost/revenue relationship.

"The premium-travel market has taken a huge hit from the financial and economic crises.

"Airlines across Europe are offering great deals to business passengers, but are still not managing to re-energise the market."

AEA reported a preliminary view for August, which indicated a similar result.

Based on weekly returns, the projection was for a two per cent loss in traffic and a 3.2 per cent decrease in capacity, with once again a slight load factor improvement.

Can't see anyone surviving very long in the world of aviation, still, imagine what we could do with all those brownfield sites that were once airports. T5 could be luxury executive apartments!

[OnlyMe]

These high charges are often of the order of 4-5 pounds per passenger.

Personally I think it's a false economy. It's going to cost the average person far more than 4 pounds extra to get to some out of the way airport like Bournemouth instead of a rail connected one like Stansted.

tim

Shift the jobs abroad and you get cheaper labour, cheaper facilities, cheaper maintenance, cheaper stopover accommodation, cheaper supplies, cheaper meals...........

Just needs the first push and once you've made the decision then that's it.

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

"If the airlines cannot make money when they are 81.8 per cent full, there is clearly something very wrong with the cost/revenue relationship.

"The premium-travel market has taken a huge hit from the financial and economic crises.

"Airlines across Europe are offering great deals to business passengers, but are still not managing to re-energise the market."

The implication being that the legacy airlines rely on business and first class ticket sales for their profit margins, and increasing numbers of passengers who previously bought said tickets are now going economy class.

[SMAC67]

The implication being that the legacy airlines rely on business and first class ticket sales for their profit margins, and increasing numbers of passengers who previously bought said tickets are now going economy class.

Business class and first class tickets are primarily bought by banks, aircraft are bought by banks and leased to airlines, the huge capital outlay required to run an airline is supplied by banks, can you connect the dots?

There isn't one airline on the face of planet earth that isn't going out of business.

Answer: without banks, airlines do not exist, they decide who lives, and who dies, and the banks are bust, can you see a problem?

[Peter Skellan]

Thats a load of sh2t. Ryanair has £2bn in the bank and is profitable this year. We have new aircraft arriving from Seattle weekly.

I think SouthWest are doing OK and easyJet will also post a small profit. So talk of all airlines going out of business is bolloeux.

Oh, and BA have never had an operation at Stansted to cut back on. They threw the towel in at Gatwick in 2003 when easyJet moved in (now 3 times the size of BA at Gatwick).

Lots of inefficient, badly run airlines offering not the product the cosumer wants are going bust. Bring It On. Faster. Quicker. Harder.

PS

[SMAC67]

It doesn't matter how much you have in the bank, the banks are bust.

When you are looking for your next job the only ones in aviation are either in the Middle East or China.

In case you haven't heard the UK is finished, we just need to get the IMF involved, sell everything that isn't nailed down and chuck everyone out into the streets to go feral. Think Jo'Burg without the climate................

To use a well known Ryanair phrase, "bye bye Ryanair", say hello to Hainan Airlines.............

Still, an overweening sense of optimism should keep everyone going a bit longer, just think of all those lovely green shoots.

[mikeymadman]

I'd be amazed if BA is still here this time next year. Becoming smaller and leaner to survive doesn't help much when you have the pension fund deficit of a big and fat airline to support.

At which point I imagine Ryanair will start having a higher still fares party...

However, I read once a couple of years ago (no idea if it's true, or if it was true then but isn't now) that Ryanair used some interesting accounting techniques when they purchase aircraft; buying them at a "discount" and then "selling" then at the "full" price and leasing them back after first booking a "profit". It wouldn't surprise me if it is true; they are thoroughly dishonest imaginative about everything else when it comes to numbers

These planes arriving from Seattle weekly could also be it's downfall... has it got anything useful to do with them?

They are good at shouting about the new routes they start, and about when they move a base to a cheaper airport nearby. However in the background they are quietly stopping a lot of routes, a lot of destinations have come off their route map completely, and a lot of new routes are alternative uses for planes coming off other routes from that base or that are having their frequency cut.

[desertorchid]

A wee bit off topic.

I have a friend here in Hong Kong who works for Air Asia as an Airline Pilot and he's been forced to get a second job to get by. His full time contract with AA brings him 24 000 HKD a month (approx 1 800 GBP) BEFORE tax. Now he may be relatively junior but I was astonished. From a child i've considered a pilot a lucrative profession and with many eager recruits like him it goes to show how low cost labour can drive down wages across all sectors. Those priveleged BA workers had better watch out!

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

I'd be amazed if BA is still here this time next year.

I seem to recall from coverage of their Q1 results that they lost £300 million and at that time had cash reserves of around £1.4bn. Therefore if they fail to stem the rate of their losses, around this time next year is when they'll run out of money.

[Bloo Loo]

Thats a load of sh2t. Ryanair has £2bn in the bank and is profitable this year. We have new aircraft arriving from Seattle weekly.

I think SouthWest are doing OK and easyJet will also post a small profit. So talk of all airlines going out of business is bolloeux.

Oh, and BA have never had an operation at Stansted to cut back on. They threw the towel in at Gatwick in 2003 when easyJet moved in (now 3 times the size of BA at Gatwick).

Lots of inefficient, badly run airlines offering not the product the cosumer wants are going bust. Bring It On. Faster. Quicker. Harder.

PS

The consumer wants:

to be treated well.

to be able to move comfortably once they are in their seat.

to have the on the ground experience as pleasant as possible.

you only get this in first class.

Edited September 16, 2009 by Bloo Loo

[interestrateripoff]

I'd be amazed if BA is still here this time next year. Becoming smaller and leaner to survive doesn't help much when you have the pension fund deficit of a big and fat airline to support.

Is this another one like BT that will end up back in public ownership?

[SMAC67]

I seem to recall from coverage of their Q1 results that they lost £300 million and at that time had cash reserves of around £1.4bn. Therefore if they fail to stem the rate of their losses, around this time next year is when they'll run out of money.

You will find that this is the basic business model for planet earth. In order to survive each and every company has to increase in size, and to do so means continually rolling over loans. Those brands that we see on a daily basis as we traverse life are all owned by companies that on their way to insolvency, if they haven't achieved it already.

"Why Most Things Fail" by Paul Ormerod explains the business lifecycle, like people, they are born, they live, and then ultimately die.

p.s. BA, like all other airlines are already subsidised by the taxpayer, who would have thunk it?

[Rare Bear]

A wee bit off topic.

I have a friend here in Hong Kong who works for Air Asia as an Airline Pilot and he's been forced to get a second job to get by. His full time contract with AA brings him 24 000 HKD a month (approx 1 800 GBP) BEFORE tax. Now he may be relatively junior but I was astonished. From a child i've considered a pilot a lucrative profession and with many eager recruits like him it goes to show how low cost labour can drive down wages across all sectors. Those priveleged BA workers had better watch out!

Anyone who thinks that pilots is paid a fortune is daydreaming. They do however pay a fortune to become pilots.

Edited September 16, 2009 by Rare Bear

[SMAC67]

Anyone who thinks that pilots is paid a fortune is daydreaming. They dow however pay a fortune to become pilots.

Absolutely, they should all become highly paid cabin crew, with that £250 a week in your back pocket you will soon be living the life of Donald Trump.

Alternatively just get access to the financial system and start skimming off the top.........