Home office boom – British Airways may want to sell its headquarters in London

Because more and more employees have been working from home since the Corona outbreak and want to continue to do so in the future, the British airline British Airways (BA) is now seriously considering selling its headquarters. “The global pandemic has shown us that many of our colleagues like to work from home and want to continue to do so, and this has accelerated our approach to offer more agile and flexible ways of working,” the airline told AFP on Friday.

The aim is “to find a hybrid work model that fits our business and combines the best of office and remote work for our employees”. Due to the restructuring necessary to cope with the crisis, consideration is also being given to “whether we still have the need for such a large main building”.

Before the corona pandemic, around 2,000 employees worked in the company’s office complex at Heathrow Airport, west of the British capital. The “Financial Times” had reported, citing an internal employee email, that BA had already hired real estate agents to examine a sale.

British Airways’ parent company IAG has cut 10,000 jobs at BA. IAG with British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus made a loss of 6.9 billion euros in 2020 due to corona-related restrictions. Sales fell by 70 percent to 7.8 billion euros. In 2019, IAG had made a profit of 1.7 billion euros. (apa / afp)