Loss-making Iberia on Friday announced plans to axe 4,500 jobs to save Spain's biggest airline from collapse and warned more cuts could follow against the backdrop of economic crisis in the eurozone country. "Iberia is in (a) fight for survival," Iberia's chief executive Rafael Sanchez-Lozano said in a statement issued by parent group International Airlines Group (IAG), which also owns profit-making British Airways.
Iberia "is unprofitable in all its markets. We have to take tough decisions now to save the company and return it to profitability," said Sanchez-Lozano. "Unless we take radical action to introduce permanent structural change the future for the airline is bleak. However this plan gives us a platform to turn the business around and grow," he added. The parent group unveiled a "reduction of 4,500 jobs to safeguard around 15,500 posts across the airline" - meaning Iberia was on course to shed almost one quarter of its staff. IAG added that a deadline of January 31, 2013 had been set to reach agreement with unions over the cuts.