British Airways aircraft in temporary storage at Bournemouth Airport Photo NPAS |
The amount available under the extended facility is $1.38 billion. Including the extended facility and some smaller additional facilities recently arranged, IAG has total undrawn general and committed aircraft financing facilities equivalent to €2.1 billion currently, compared to €1.9 billion at the end of 2019. IAG has not drawn down on any of its facilities.
IAG has, like many major airlines, been taking actions to reduce operating expenses and improve cash flow. These include grounding surplus aircraft, reducing and deferring capital spending, cutting non-essential and non-cyber related IT spend, freezing recruitment and discretionary spending, implementing voluntary leave options, temporarily suspending employment contracts and reducing working hours.
Due to the ongoing crisis, it has been decided that the top-level management changes that had previously been announced would be put on hold, Luis Gallego will continue in his role as Iberia chief executive for the next few months, Willie Walsh not retire just yet and will continue to act as Group chief executive while Javier Sanchez will remain as Vueling chief executive.
British Airways has been putting a large number of its fleet in temporary or soft storage while the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis continues to hamper most normal flight operations. Aircraft are being parked up at several regional airports including Cardiff, London City and Bournemouth (pictured above). The airline is also continuing to operate special repatriation flights, including three in the last two days bringing stranded Brits back from Peru.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "The Foreign Office has chartered 3 more flights for British travellers in Peru – as well as domestic flights to help those in Cusco. We continue to work around the clock to help British travellers struggling to get back to the UK and thank the Peruvian government for all their support in making this happen."
Delighted Captain Croft and his @British_Airways crew has landed in the UK, bringing home a full plane of 275 passengers from Peru. Two more repatriation flights will leave Lima for London today. pic.twitter.com/Skx2kMTjYr— Kate Harrisson 🇬🇧 (@kate_harrisson) March 30, 2020
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