British Airways plans to run half its flights[ 1242 ]

BA planning to run half of flights

The Lonon Evening Standard.,, 13.05.10

British Airways plans to run at least half its flights from Heathrow Airport during the first wave of strikes by cabin crew next week under newly-announced contingency plans.

The airline said it intends to operate more than 60% of long-haul and over 50% of short-haul services from the airport during the five-day walkout from Tuesday.

Unite is planning four strikes of five days each, with just one day between, disrupting services for more than 20 days, in a long-running dispute over jobs, pay and working conditions.

BA said it plans to fly more than 60,000 customers each day of the strikes next week, adding that Gatwick and London City airports will not be affected by the industrial action. Most of its revised short-haul schedule at Heathrow will be operated by BA's own aircraft and cabin crew, supplemented by leasing up to eight aircraft with pilots and cabin crews from five different airlines from the UK and Europe.

British Airways has also made arrangements with more than 50 other carriers so that it can rebook customers during the strike period on to their flights, if they had been due to travel on a BA service which has been cancelled. The airline said it is still available to hold further talks with Unite but wants customers to have early warning of its flying schedule to allow sufficient time for alternative travel arrangements to be made.

Customers flying to or from Heathrow on a long-haul flight between May 18 and May 23 can check their bookings on www.ba.com to see if their flight is still operating. The revised short-haul Heathrow schedule between May 18 and May 23 will be available for customers from Friday.
Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, said: "Unite's leaders have deliberately targeted the busy half-term holidays to cause as much disruption as possible for hard-working families looking to spend some well-earned time away.

"We are confident that many crew will ignore Unite's pointless strike call and support the efforts of the airline to keep our customers flying. As the new Government starts addressing the enormous economic challenges facing the country, it is sad that Unite's priority is to seek to damage Britain's links with the world."

Mr Walsh said BA had made a "very fair" offer to the union to resolve a 15-month dispute, maintaining that the airline had compromised "many times" in a bid to get a deal.
He added: "Our cabin crews are voting with their feet. Due to the numbers of cabin crew who are telling us they want to work normally since Unite's latest strike call, the schedule will be slightly larger than we had originally anticipated.

We will fly tens of thousands of customers around the world on business trips and family holidays every day that a strike takes place. Many thousands more can be rebooked on to alternative BA flights or on to rival airlines. We remain absolutely determined to resolve the dispute and our door remains open to Unite, day or night. It is not too late for Unite to call off this action and protect its members' job security."