Obviously, as the Minister has said, this is clearly very unwelcome news in deeply uncertain economic times, and will be of great concern to the employees affected and their families. And, of course, it’s a serious blow to the aerospace sector, which is a major source of high-skilled and highly paid jobs throughout Wales, but, obviously, particularly in this enterprise zone in which the Welsh Government has invested heavily, not least, of course, in acquiring Cardiff Airport itself. Could the Minister tell the Assembly at what point the Government was aware of these impending job losses? There seems to be a worrying pattern of late with some of our major companies making these announcements. Are the antennae of the Welsh Government sufficiently alive to these possibilities?

Can the Government also share what it knows about the underlying purpose behind this announcement? The company has referred to corporate restructuring. Is this a case of cuts in numbers overall, or is some of the maintenance activity being relocated elsewhere? Is it the case, as we have heard from members of the workforce, that there is also a suggestion of some staff being re-graded and suffering a loss in salary as a result?

The company has itself made a series of profit warnings over the course of the last few months, as a result of the depreciation in the pound and the uncertainty following the referendum. Is there any suggestion at this stage of any link between this decision and those profit warnings? Would the Minister agree that if it is simply a case of cutting costs, that would be very, very troubling if it’s done at the expense of the workforce and indeed the safety of BA’s customers, particularly by a company that, despite those profit warnings, will still have a profit of over £1 billion and pays its chief executive, the chief executive of the international aviation group, Willie Walsh, multi-million pounds? That is why I feel that the workforce, certainly, will find this decision and the rationale behind it very, very difficult to take. Finally, can she say where this leaves the strategy that I referred to in terms of the enterprise zone, and in terms of the aviation sector, which is one of our key sectors here in Wales?