British Airways to Cease Boeing 747 Operations, Expecting to Sack 12k Jobs for Survival

British Airways has announced that it will retire its entire Boeing 747 fleet with immediate effect after the coronavirus outbreak paralyzed global travelling.

 

The airline was expecting to retire its entire jumbo jet fleet in 2024 as the humped fuselage and four-engine aircraft by the U.S. multinational corporation is getting outdated when compared to the modern twin-engine aircraft, not to mention fuel efficiency. However, the coronavirus outbreak that sank the world’s economy to what IMF expected to be the worst since the Great Depression, thus forcing the airline for early retirement of the fleet when the travelling figure was near zero since March.

“It is with great sadness that we can confirm we are proposing to retire our entire 747 fleets with immediate effect,” said British Airways in a statement. “While the aircraft will always have a special place in our heart, as we head into the future we will be operating more flights on modern, fuel-efficient aircraft such as our new A350s and 787s”.

 

In April, British Airways said that employment cut up to 12,000 jobs, representing 28% of its workforce, is required for the company to stay in the business. According to The Sun, the airline reached an agreement with 650 pilots in which 350 pilots were sacked and 300 in a pool to be called when needed.

The share price of International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. (ICAG), the parent company of British Airways, dropped GBP7.40 per share or 3.30% to GBP216.83 per share on Friday morning.