Qatar Airways ‘invites former pilots to rejoin’

Qatar Airways has reportedly asked some pilots it made redundant during the pandemic to apply to rejoin the airline as it looks to recover.

Sky News reports that the carrier has written to “former crew colleagues” as it is “now looking to restart recruitment activities to adequately resource our Boeing operations”.

The broadcaster commented: “It’s a rare sign of positivity in an industry hard hit by the pandemic which, despite the successful rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in countries like the UK, faces severe restrictions for many months to come.

“The move is likely to reignite concerns airlines are quick to jettison staff during a crisis only to rehire them at a later date – potentially on worse terms and conditions.”

Qatar is just one of many airlines forced to make thousands of redundancies amid the unprecedented coronavirus crisis.

British Airways, which announced up to 12,000 redundancies in April last year, came under scrutiny from MPs last year for its controversial ‘fire and rehire’ policy.

British Airways’ parent International Airlines Group (IAG) is due to report its full-year results for 2020 on Friday. Sky News reported that IAG’s full-year losses could be as high as £5 billion.

IAG announced on Monday it had secured a £2 billion loan for BA, and agreed £450 million in pension payment deferrals.

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