MPs propose taking away BA’s Heathrow slots over job cuts

A number of British Members of Parliament, including the chairman of the Transport Select Committee, Huw Merriman, have called for the government to penalise British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) for job cuts by taking away the carrier’s coveted slots at London Heathrow. “Many of us are concerned that companies are using this pandemic as a justification to slash jobs and employment terms. Step forward British Airways… Will the Department [of Transport] ask the Civil Aviation Authority to undertake an urgent review into reallocating lucrative landing slots at Heathrow from companies like British Airways, who indicate they are downsizing, and perhaps hand those to those companies that wish to expand and take on workers?”, Merriman asked during a parliamentary sitting. While Merriman represents the ruling Conservative party, he was backed by members from the opposition Labour and Scottish National Party. Unite, one of Britain’s largest labour unions, also called upon Transport Secretary Kelly Tolhurst to review BA’s landing slots at the capital’s main gateway. “There should be a Government review of British Airways’ domination of UK landing slots amid the airline’s betrayal of its workers and the British public,” general secretary Len McCluskey said. According to a report by Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), the slot coordinator at Heathrow, among many other airports, British Airways holds 4,887 slots for the Summer 2020 season, which amounts to 50.5% of all slots at Heathrow. Merriman underlined that BA’s recently announced job cut programmes could be seen as “sacking its entire 42,000 workforce and replacing it with 30,000 jobs on inferior terms”.