Coronavirus fallout: British Airways plans to cut more than a quarter of its jobs

British Airways is set to cut more than a quarter of its jobs due to the coronavirus crisis, forecasting that passenger numbers will take years toreturn to 2019 levels.

BA has 45,000 employees, including 16,500 cabin crew and 3,900 pilots, according to its website.

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG), which owns British Airways, reported a first-quarter operating loss reflecting the full extent of travel lockdowns during the pandemic. Revenue dropped 13% to 4.6 billion euros.

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IAG said it expected significantly worse losses in the second quarter due to the decline in passenger capacity and traffic, despite some relief from government job retention and wage support schemes.

In a statement, it said the sweeping restructuring at BA will probably "affect most of British Airways' employees and may result in the redundancy of up to 12,000 of them."

Union leaders criticised the plans and said the airline should have worked to secure more government aid to avoid cutting jobs.

The pilots union BALPA said staff were devastated.

Earlier this month, BA used Britain's COVID-19 jobs retention scheme to furlough 22,626 employees. Under the scheme, the government takes on part of the cost of retaining staff who remain on the payroll while being sent home during the crisis.

Governments in Europe and the United States are providing payroll support to airlines while the industry battles its biggest ever crisis. Estimated global airline losses from the coronavirus pandemic have climbed to $314 billion, the International Air Transport Association said on April 14. More than half the world's airplanes are in storage.