Friday 19 March 2021 9:02 am | Updated: Friday 19 March 2021 9:12 am

British Airways considers selling its Heathrow HQ in homeworking shift

The Waterside complex was completed in 1998 at a cost of £200m. (Source: BA)

British Airways said it was considering selling its headquarters as a switch to homeworking during the pandemic means it may no longer need so much office space.

The potential sale of the building, first reported by the Financial Times, could boost the airline’s finances which have been hammered throughout the last year.

The BA complex, Waterside, is west of London near Heathrow Airport and is also the headquarters of its parent company, IAG. It was completed in 1998 at a cost of £200m.

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.

British Airways said in a statement that many employees enjoyed working from home and its future policy is likely to be a flexible mix of home and office working.

“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.

The shift to homeworking has already prompted some of Britain’s biggest firms to alter 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.

British Airways has spent the last year cutting costs in a bid to weather the Covid-19 storm.

It has shed more than 10,000 employees, leaving the firm with around 30,000 workers, most of whom are non-office-based pilots, engineers, or cabin crew.

The airline has also sought to raise cash by selling famous works of art that formerly hung in its executive lounges.