British Airways Posts 2nd Record Loss in a Row

British Airways reported on Friday that they lost £531 million during the last financial year, which ended March 31. Willie Walsh, the chief executive of the carrier, said that they are taking decisive action to change their cost base structure, which is why they are confident of long-term viability.

The markets had expected £600 million in losses to be posted by the carrier for the financial year. However, it looks as though Walsh is on the right track in reducing the company’s costs, as the official figure was nearly £70 million less than they anticipated.

This figure comes as the carrier is facing strikes by cabin crew, which started this morning (Monday). When the figures were announced, Walsh said that he thought they had reached a general agreement with Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, the Unite union joint general secretaries. However, they still needed to reach a deal with the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (Bassa), which is the branch of Unite that is at the heart of this whole thing. This obviously didn’t get anywhere, as the strikes are on after talks failed this weekend. Now the carrier is facing even further losses, more than £100 million, due to the industrial action.

Although the latest reported loss doesn’t include losses British Airways suffered due to the ash cloud crisis, Walsh says that they intend to seek compensation. European airspace was closed for 6 days in April, and Walsh thinks the imposed restrictions were a big overreaction and that there is certainly acceptance of compensation on a European level.