British Airways President advocates for job cuts because of the pandemic.

British Airways President and CEO Alex Cruz defended on Wednesday the drastic cuts made in the airline’s workforce due to the collapse of demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, reported InfoBae.

See also: New travel restrictions bring the reduction in IAG capacity in 2020 to 63%.

Cruz appeared before the British Parliament’s Transport Committee a week after the International Airlines Group (IAG), a British-Spanish consortium to which British Airways and Iberia, among other airlines, belong, announced further job cuts due to coronavirus restrictions and quarantines.

“Covid has devastated our business, our sector. We are still fighting for our own survival,” Cruz told the MPs.

See also: Luis Gallego becomes CEO of IAG.

“Last week we transported 187,000 passengers to and from the United Kingdom. The same week of the previous year, just under a million,” he said, stressing that with fewer flights less staff are needed.

In response to the health emergency, IAG, led by his compatriot Luis Gallego, embarked on a massive restructuring, in line with other airlines such as Air Canada, American Airlines and Lufthansa.

British Airways is currently in the process of cutting 13,000 jobs, nearly a third of its workforce, and without giving any figures Iberia also acknowledged that it will have to reduce its workforce due to the coronavirus.

Regretting “deeply” the departure of “many loyal and hardworking colleagues”, Cruz explained: “as president of British Airways (…) I had to act incredibly fast” to save the company.

He added, “This is an impossible situation. I am completely dedicated and focused on protecting those nearly 30,000 jobs of BA colleagues who will continue in the company.

But “people are still afraid to travel” and “we do not anticipate a return of our passengers in the short term,” he said.

IAG forecasts that passenger demand will not return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2023.

The group last week launched a ?2.74 billion ($3.23 billion) capital increase to address the coronavirus crisis.