BRITISH Airways CitiExpress is to reduce staff numbers,
withdraw from 12 loss making routes and cut capacity following a review of its
operations.
The British Airways subsidiary is to cut 500 jobs and
withdraw from the following routes: Cardiff to Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and
Newcastle, Bristol to Brussels and Cork, Plymouth to Cork and Dublin,
Southampton to Frankfurt, Jersey to Paris, Newcastle to Cork and Belfast to
Sheffield.
The carrier is also to launch new routes between Manchester
to Venice and Bristol to Leeds/Bradford.
At the same time frequency on a number of routes will be boosted.
In total overall regional capacity will be reduced by eight
per cent.
The aim is to reduce the airline’s cost base and deliver
annual savings of £20 million by 2004.