Airline sheds 1,000 jobs - good news or bad?

I’d hate to lose my job.

(Regular readers likely know I’m a retired school teacher who makes birdhouses, chairs, bowls, odds and sods in my spare time to pay for gas for my motorcycle - so there’s really no job to lose. But, if I was back in the classroom, I’d hate to lose my job).

However, as soon as I read ‘British Airways PLC is shedding 1,000 jobs, putting 3,000 more employees on part-time work and reducing the size of cabin crews at Heathrow’ (The Associated Press) I had to ask myself, is that good news or bad?


Losing a job can be an upsetting, mind-bending and earth-shattering experience. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

But I wish more strongly - because air travel is the most polluting and carbon-intensive form of transportation - that sustainable, eco-friendly jobs were more the order of the day.

According to The Suicidal Planet (mentioned in a previous post and this week’s column), “our culture urges us to travel more often and farther both within the U.S. and increasingly overseas. The travel sections of newspapers clearly show the avenues for future growth: They are full of advertisements and articles encouraging ever more flying.”

Yes, I’m sure some air travel to another part of the globe would take our breath away. Unfortunately, it will take more than our breath away in the long term.

We know air travel is showing the fastest growth in fuel consumption of all forms of transportation.

We know the final result is more pollution and more carbon emissions and that limits to both are around the corner.

We know we’ll soon need more green, eco-friendly jobs available for those coming off the planes.

We know more discussion is needed about what those green jobs will be.

And that’s why I wrote the following in this week’s column:

That’s right. You heard it here first. I’m not sure if City Hall’s plans to turn London’s airport into a cargo gateway at a cost of $11,000,000 has long-term legs.

Or wings.

Some city councillors and business leaders will wonder, why don’t I just sit still, be quiet and let the experts get on with the job?

For three reasons....

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