British Airways suspends Gatwick flights, expands furloughs

British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) has suspended all of its flights at London Gatwick at least until December as it further minimises its operations and moves to furlough “many more” employees as a result of the UK’s deepening travel restrictions, Sky News reported citing an internal letter to staff. New government rules put in place for England from November 5 until December 2 state that “you must stay at home and avoid travel in the UK or overseas, unless for work, education or other legally permitted reasons.” The government also extended the furlough scheme across the UK until the end of March, paying up to 80% of an employee’s wages, up to GBP2,500 pounds (USD3,300) a month. In its letter, BA management told staff: “We have made the difficult decision to further reduce our operation for the rest of November. This means far fewer flights than we hoped for in November and means grounding more of our aircraft, including pausing all flights from Gatwick until December.” The intensified lockdown measures will force the flag carrier into “moving many more colleagues, from both operational and support function areas, onto the government’s extended Job Retention Scheme.” A BA spokesperson told Sky News that the airline had been “urgently reviewing” its November schedule in the wake of the government’s announcement about the lockdown measures issued on October 31. “Our focus is on keeping crucial air links open – bringing home the thousands of customers currently abroad, transporting vital goods, and ensuring people who are permitted to travel in and out of the UK for work, education and other reasons stipulated by the UK government can continue to do so,” the flag carrier clarified, adding that it was contacting customers whose flights had been cancelled. London Gatwick has said it intends to stay open during the lockdown but that all flights are temporarily operating only from its North Terminal. In separate news, the British consumer group Which? criticised British Airways and easyJet (U2, London Luton) on November 9 for going against European Union guidance by allegedly refusing to refund unused vouchers for flights cancelled because of the pandemic. According to the group, some passengers accepted vouchers claiming they were not told about the possibility of receiving cash refunds.