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BA cancels flights for 150,000 travellers
Last updated at 16:22pm on 25.01.07
No joy: BA's Willie Walsh
British Airways was today forced to cancel virtually all of its flights out of London next Tuesday and Wednesday because of a strike by more than 11,000 cabin crew.
In a dramatic move, the airline scrapped all of its 550 flights from Heathrow and a further 170 from Gatwick.
Have you been affected by the BA strikes? We want to hear about your experiences. Email ben.clerkin@dailymail.co.uk or phone him on 0207 9386000 ext 6395.
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Only six long-haul flights will still go ahead, from Gatwick. It means more than 150,000 passengers booked to fly with BA during the two strike days have been left with their winter holidays and business trips in ruins.
BA faces potential losses of anything up to £300 million, on top of the £150 million it lost last year due to extra airport security measures and the pre-Christmas fog chaos.
The airline also warned of cancellations on the days either side of the official strike dates because crew and aircraft will be out of place.
There are six more strike days ordered - but with huge knock-on effects before and after the walkouts, it means three weeks of major disruption affecting many hundreds of thousands more passengers.
The UK's largest carrier ordered the 48-hour shutdown after emergency talks between BA and the Transport & General union broke down in the early hours.
Heathrow will become a giant aircraft "car park", causing serious disruption for travellers using other airlines.
A senior Heathrow source said: "It will be chaos. All travellers are in for a very bad time."
Other carriers and rail operators are expecting demand to soar as passengers make alternative arrangements.
Cabin crew pickets will be on duty at Heathrow and Gatwick.
BA carries 77,000 passengers a day, mostly from Heathrow.
Union chiefs ordered the action in a long-running row over two-tier pay, sickness absence and other working conditions.
Leaders of Bassa, the cabin crew arm of the T&G, accused BA of "itching for a fight".
One said he had never negotiated with such an "aggressive" employer.
Willie Walsh, BA chief executive, said the union had rejected new offers on pay and working conditions "out of hand".
He appealed to the union to meet BA at conciliation service, Acas.
He said: "We are deeply sorry that our customers are the innocent victims of this unnecessary and unjustified strike." More than 15,000 travellers had already contacted BA, he said, "extremely concerned about their holidays and business trips".
Mr Walsh said the cancellations were announced today to give people as much time as possible to make other plans.
The six further stoppages are scheduled for 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14 February.
In a ballot of more than 11,000 cabin crew there was an 80 per cent turnout with 96.1 per cent voting for strike action — one of the most resounding votes in union history.
The T&G has accused BA of "forcing" cabin crew to work when they are ill.
BA says sickness among crew - down from an average 22 days a year to 12 - remains nearly double the national average.
Reader views (9)
I fly frequently but in recent years have gravitated away from BA. This partly due to the introduction of discount airlines, but not entirely so. A major reason is the arrogance of staff and the well known perks that those staff hang onto and we pay for when, in a competitive industry, such excesses are both greedy and unjustified. BA staff are housed in only the best hotels abroad. Most of their customers happily settle for less.
In addition the life-long flying perks should ideally be stopped but at minimum be taxed just as every other employee "benefit in kind" is.
It is about time that BA staff accept that they are industry dinosaurs and if they wish to continue to enjoy a decent job at a decent rate of pay they must put customers first. Strikes belong to an era long gone.
David
- David, Budapest, Hungary
The Union says that the BA cabin staff are loyal! Certainly not to the company that employs them and they are obviously contemptuous of BA's passengers from whose custom their salaries are paid. The sick leave excuse is pathetic and would be unacceptable to most well run companies.
They may have a responsible and difficult job, but so do most other people in employment. Let's not forget that they get several days rest after 8 hours flying (and in a first class hotel with various additional allowances when they are abroad). They say that they want a decent pension but they don't mention the fact that they and their families receive heavily subsidised travel for the rest of their lives, which to most of us would be worth thousands. Also the free travel they get when they are employed is untaxed, unlike virtually all 'perks' that others receive.
I have absolutely no sympathy with this strike. I recently had over 1 million frequent flyer miles with BA but I won't be accumulating them much in future - fortunately there are some excellent alternatives where strikes are unheared of!
- Sam Bartlett, Port El Kantaoui, Tunisia
What is the British Airports Authority doing to mitigate the impact of the strike on customers using other airlines? Surely BA cannot use Heathrow and Gatwick airports to park its moribund aircraft and deny other airlines legitimate space at the terminals? There are four days for the British Airports Authority to sort this one out.
- Tom, Richmond
Compare this with the "managed sickness" policy as run by Tesco - and spot the difference in the dynamism between these two companies.
- Karl, London
The cabin staff - or perhaps just the union - seem to want a range of illnesses exempt from being called 'sick leave'. So essentially they want the staff to be able to go off sick but not count it as sick leave: absurd. How the union can expect any public sympathy is unbelievable.
- Amanda, London, UK
The sick policy BA operate is pretty much identical to those used by many other major employers, mine included and is a necessary management tool for cutting down on unneccessary 'sick' days. As with so many issues such as this, those who are genuinely sick should have no reason to be concerned. The strikers are being unreasonable and should be given no sympathy.
- Claire, Croydon
BA has been held to ransom for too long by the unions. 22 days sick leave a year is just absurd. I guess the unions will only be content when they have frightened away so many passengers that the airline loses so much business that it has to make compulsory redundancies. I thought we had left this sort of nonesense behind in 1979.
- Richard, Croydon UK
I am tired of reading about of BA staff going on strike. If the pay and conditions are so awful, why don't they all apply for jobs with another airline? I am a BA silver card holder and am seriously considering switching to alternative airlines.
- Howard, London, UK
I hope Willie Walsh urgently requests sick counts for all Cabin Crew and all those that have taken over 12 days are dismissed - I have no sympathy for this stupid strike.
- Raminder Bhalla, Northolt
