Walsh to work without pay in July

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh is showing solidarity with his staff in planning to work without pay next month as part of cost cuts.

Mr Walsh, whose normal salary is £735,000 a year, will work for nothing in July as part of a cost-cutting drive under which 2,500 staff have left the airline in the past year. The airline unveiled record losses last month.

However, he quipped that he should have told his wife. “She read about it in the papers,” a grinning Walsh told Reuters at a lunch for airline executives gathering in the Malaysian capital.

Many airlines have cut jobs as the industry has been battered by a global downturn that has hit demand for travel and air freight.

Reuters