British Airways to take on 500 staff but cancel 16,000 flights

BRITISH Airways has vowed to hire hundreds of call centre workers amid passenger fury over long delays in answering calls.

The flag carrier is also cancelling 16,000 flights over the spring and summer as it grapples with staff shortages.

BA chief executive, Sean Doyle, said the airline would hire 500 call centre agents over the next two months as the airline prepares for the busiest time of the year.

The Easter break was marred by cancellations and reports of hours-long waits to speak to customer service.

Mr Doyle said: “We will build up our capacity in our contact centres over the next two months to the level that we need.” Meanwhile, the BA chief insisted the airline was able to hire enough staff – but was unable to get them up and running because of long delays to security vetting procedures.

It plans to reduce its schedules by cutting 8,000 round-trip flights over the coming months. Mr Doyle said that BA would accommodate customers by offering them the option to be transferred to similar flights.

It means that its owner, IAG, will run 80pc of 2019 services this year, down from previously planned 85pc.

The remarks came as the FTSE 100 company announced a €916m (£784m) pre-tax loss for the first three months of the year. With travel restrictions eased for part of the quarter, revenue jumped from €1bn to €3.4bn.

The worse than expected losses sent IAG shares down by about 10pc. The stock has sunk by 36pc in the past 12 months, piling pressure on its chief executive, Luis Gallego.

Meanwhile the share prices of rivals including Air France-klm and Germany’s Lufthansa have posted gains.