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By Jim Douglas |
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May 14, 2010 -
British Airways reports contingency plans for its
cabin crew strike
period of May 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 and will fly more than 60,000
customers each day.
All flights at
Gatwick will operate as normal as will flights to and from At Heathrow, British Airways intends to operate more than 60 per cent of longhaul flights and more than 50 per cent of shorthaul flights in the first strike period and it will add to this schedule where possible. The airline will continue to fly to every shorthaul destination on its network. |
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The airline will
operate most of its revised shorthaul schedule at Heathrow using its own
aircraft and cabin crew, but will supplement its schedule by leasing up
to eight aircraft with pilots and cabin crews from five different
airlines based in the
British Airways
has also made arrangements with more than 50 other carriers so that it
can rebook customers during the actual strike period onto their flights,
if they had been due to travel on a BA service which has been cancelled.
The airline is
still available to hold further talks with Unite, the cabin crew union
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/from Heathrow on a longhaul flight between May 18 and May 23 can now
check their bookings on www.ba.com to see if their flight is still
operating. The revised shorthaul Heathrow schedule between May 18 and
May 23 will be available for customers on our website at 10am on Friday
May 14.
Willie Walsh, British Airways’ 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
“Our offer is very
fair. It addresses all the concerns Unite has raised during 15 months of
negotiations and Unite knows we have compromised many times in an effort
to get a resolution. This strike action is entirely disproportionate.
“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 onto alternative BA flights or onto rival airlines.
“I understand the
deep frustration that customers who are booked from May 24 onwards must
feel towards Unite. The union knew full well we could not publish a
revised flying program at Heathrow across a 23 day period in one go. We
will do all we can to give customers more clarity about their specific
flight once we start to understand how many cabin crew are willing to
work as normal.
“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.”
Customers in the
British Airways’
flight program is complex, involving the combination of rosters for
13,000 cabin crew, more than 3,000 pilots and 230 aircraft operating
schedules. More than 8,000 flight and cabin crew have to be in the right
place at the right time, either on aircraft, at airports or in crew
hotels in more than 140 cities in more than 70 countries, every day.
Customers are
advised to check ba.com on a regular basis to see if their flight is
still operating before departing for the airport. If their flight has
been cancelled they should not come to the airport but contact British
Airways or their travel agent.
Key points of
British Airways’ schedule for customers:
• Flights to and
from London Gatwick will operate as normal.
• Flights operated
to and from
• More than 60 per
cent of longhaul services into and out of London Heathrow will operate
as planned between May 18 and May 23. The airline may be able to add to
this schedule in the days ahead.
• The airline will
be able to operate more than half of its shorthaul flights into and out
of London Heathrow between May 18 and May 23. The airline may be able to
add to this schedule in the days ahead.
• Flights operated
by subsidiary OpenSkies between
• All dedicated
cargo freighter services continue to operate as normal. |
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