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March 20, 2010 | British Airways strike leads to cancellation of thousands of tickets | London: Thousands of passengers had their flights cancelled on Saturday following the launch of a strike by British Airways cabin crew. It is the first such strike in 13 years.
After talks over cost cutting between the airline and union Unite, which represents
cabin crew, collapsed on Friday, the troubled airline said it hoped to keep flights
running for up to 49,000 passengers on both Saturday and Sunday. Unite said that its
12,000 members were supporting the three day walkout. At Heathrow, which is the
worst affected airport,
screens were set up to protect the identities of BA staff who defied the strike.
BA said it expected 60 percent of its long-haul services and 30 percent short-haul
services from Heathrow would be running over the weekend while short-haul flights
from Gatwick would be halved. In a bid to keep the service run normally going,
BA chartered planes from rival airlines, drafted in volunteer crew from among
its other work force and rebooked some passengers on other services. “I am deeply
sorry. This is a terrible day for BA. Thousands of our staff will be serving you
over the weekend. I am confident that we will be able to deliver a good service,”
News.com.au quoted BA CEO Willie Walsh , as saying in his apology to
passengers.
However, Unite claimed that two of the planes chartered by BA as part of the
airline's
contingency plans were delayed by technical problems and that more than 100
complaints
had been made by passengers about catering. “We don’t want to strike but the
company
has been totally unreasonable and given us no choice,” one Unite member said.
Analysts estimate that BA has already lost more than 25 million pounds because
of cancelled tickets and contingency costs due to the strike. |
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