Walsh told shareholders at British Airways PLC's annual general meeting that costs must be reduced to keep the company viable. The proposed job cuts, to be made by next March, would come on top of the 2,500 positions that have already been axed since last summer.
The airline also wants to freeze the pay of staff for two years, part of drastic expenditure cuts, as the global economic downturn eats away at demand for air travel.
Pilots for the airline voted on Monday to accept a 2.6 percent pay cut as part of a package of measures to save BA some 26 million pounds ($41.9 million). But thousands of baggage handlers and check-in staff are opposed to the cost-cutting plans. Their union, the GMB, said they are angry that the lowest paid employees at the airline were being asked to give up their family friendly flexible working patterns and accept permanent change to their salary conditions.
