British Airways has said it is considering selling its headquarters building because of a switch to homeworking of staff as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The airline is of the view it no longer needs so much office space, hence its decision to possibly sell its headquarters completed in 1998 at a cost of 200 million pounds ($279 million).
The shift to homeworking last year due to the pandemic has prompted some of Britain’s biggest companies to make changes to their office footprints.
Banking giant Lloyds said it would cut office space by 20 per cent within three years, with HSBC aiming for a 40 per cent reduction.
“We’ve re-structured our business to emerge from the crisis and are considering whether we still have the need for such a large headquarters building,” a spokesman said in a statement noting that many employees enjoyed working from home and BA’s future policy would likely be a flexible mix of home and office working.
Waterside, BA’s headquarters is near Heathrow Airport, west of London, and is also the headquarters of British Airways parent company, IAG. Waterside’s long-term future was already hanging in the balance as it would need to be demolished if the proposed expansion of Heathrow goes ahead.
To survive the pandemic, British Airways has spent the last year cutting costs, including shedding over 10,000 employees, leaving it with about 30,000, most of whom don’t work in the office but are pilots, cabin crew, engineers or airport staff.
