LONDON (Reuters) – British Airways owner IAG has exhausted every avenue to shore up its finances and is burning through cash, its CEO said on Monday, as the aviation industry warned of the fresh damage it would suffer if Britain quarantines international arrivals.
Willie Walsh told parliament’s transport committee IAG would have to review plans to resume flying in July if the government pressed ahead with plans to introduce a quarantine on most people coming into the country by air as part of measures to prevent a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
While Walsh said IAG was not in a position where it had to ask for a specific bailout from the government, he added the quarantine plan would add to the pressure on the group.
“We’ve probably exhausted every avenue that I can think of at this stage to shore up our liquidity. The cash has been reducing significantly and that will be the case as we go through May, June and July,” he said.
“The announcements yesterday of a 14-day period (of quarantine) for coming into the UK, it’s definitely going to make it worse,” he said, forecasting demand for “minimal” capacity under such rules.
Questioned by UK lawmakers over a British Airways plan to lay off up to 12,000 people, or 30% of its workforce, Walsh told lawmakers that aviation was facing the deepest crisis in its histor