British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) has extended its revolving credit facility by one year to June 2021, with USD1.38 billion currently available under it, the carrier's parent company IAG International Airlines Group said in a statement on March 30.
The US dollar-secured credit facility will be extended from June 23, 2020, to June 23, 2021, it said.
Including the extended facility and “some smaller additional facilities recently arranged,” IAG currently has total undrawn general and committed aircraft financing facilities equivalent to EUR2.1 billion euros (USD2.3 billion), compared to EUR1.9 billion (USD2.1 billion) at the end of 2019.
The group, which also includes Iberia, Vueling Airlines, Aer Lingus, and LEVEL, has not drawn down on any of its facilities, the statement stressed.
The group “continues to have strong liquidity with cash, cash equivalents, and interest-bearing deposits” of EUR7.2 billion (USD7.9 billion) as at March 27, while total cash and undrawn facilities currently amount to EUR9.3 billion (USD10.2 billion), it added.
In addition, the group said it was “exploring a number of operational and treasury initiatives” to improve its cash flow and liquidity further.
As for British Airways' coronavirus-ravaged schedules, all of its flights to and from London Gatwick will be provisionally suspended from April 1 and other services are under review, it revealed on March 31. Essential functions such as aircraft maintenance, towing, and cleaning will remain to support operations when flights resume.
Gatwick will shutter its North Terminal on April 1 for one month, with all flights switching to the South Terminal. At London Heathrow, BA moved all of its Terminal 3 flights to Terminal 5 on March 27.
