A viral video on social media claims that British Airways has applied to dismiss its entire workforce from 15 June and is shutting down its operations.
However, no such announcement has been made by the airlines. In fact, there are videos and posts which suggest that the airlines is resuming its operations.
CLAIM
In the viral video, text mentioning ‘Thank you and goodbye’ can be seen with a voice over saying: “British Airways has applied to dismiss its entire workforce from 15 June. So before we leave you, we would like to say thank you and goodbye.”
Several social media users have shared it on Facebook and Twitter with the same narrative.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We searched on YouTube using keywords ‘British Airways thank you’ and found a video uploaded by the handle ‘Unite the Union Yout.’
The video was exactly same as the viral video and was uploaded on 14 June. The description of the video reads: “British Airways has applied to dismiss all of its staff from 15 June 2020. Before we leave you, the staff of British Airways would like to say thank you and goodbye.”
We couldn’t find the viral video on any of the official social media handles of the airline in question. Rather, the airlines had tweeted on 30 June about an offer for its passengers that suggested that the airline is fully functional.
Even on Facebook, the airline had posted on Thursday, 2 July, that they will be ramping their flight schedules in July. In fact, the airlines uploaded a video on 20 June titled ‘Looking forward to welcoming you back on board’.
We also found a BBC article published on 19 June titled: ‘British Airways ground staff at Gatwick face redundancy’. The article mentioned that the airline had been criticised by MPs “who branded the airline ‘a national disgrace’ over the possible redundancies”.
The article quoted an airline spokesperson as saying, “We are acting now to protect as many jobs possible. The airline industry is facing the deepest structural change in its history, as well as facing a severely weakened global economy.”
Evidently, a viral video falsely claimed that the British Airways is shutting its operations from 15 June.
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