BA flights face more strike action

Members of Unite will stage their 18th day of action and will stay out until next Wednesday, forcing more losses onto the troubled company.

The union said the strikes had cost BA 119m, with the airline

admitting each day of action was adding 7m.

The impact of the bitter long-running dispute was revealed on Thursday when the airline announced a 14.2 per cent dip in passenger numbers last month. BA said it carried just under 2.37 million passengers last month compared with just under 2.76 million in May 2009, with 14 days of May 2010 being affected by strikes.

BA said it operated more flights yesterday because of a break in the strikes and plans to increase its flying programme over the next five days as more crew "ignore" the industrial action and report for duty.

"We have announced that we are planning to fly about 80 per cent of our long-haul programme, including all JFK (New York) services and also all South African flights as we approach the World Cup," said a spokesman.

BA said it was planning to run a full schedule of its flights from Heathrow to Los Angeles today.

Unite is planning to hold another ballot of its cabin crew members, which it has to under employment law, and has warned of a summer of disruption unless there is a deal.

The union claims that rest day working was now being offered to Gatwick cabin crew by BA managers in a bid to increase the number of trained crew who were able to work.

"Asking crew to work on their days off shows that, despite BA claims, the Gatwick operation is being stretched as some crew are on strike and others are being used to crew Heathrow flights because colleagues there are on strike," said a Unite official.

Nearly 800,000 has been collected through Unite branch donations to help finance the dispute. Donations from other unions in the UK and $100,000 (68,397) from America's giant United Steelworkers union have also been received.

Unite is considering increasing strike pay, currently 30 a day, for the next five-day walkout, in recognition of the financial hardship members are facing.

Talks between its joint leader Tony Woodley and BA's chief executive Willie Walsh under the auspices of the conciliation service Acas ended without agreement last week, with little sign of any progress.

The row blew up more than a year ago when BA proposed a cut in crew numbers on long-haul flights from 15 to 14, a two-year pay freeze and new contracts for fresh recruits and newly-promoted staff.

Negotiations with the union resulted in a deal with pilots. The company remained in negotiation with check-in staff and baggage handler representatives, but talks with cabin crew leaders broke down.

An agreement in principle has since been struck over cost-cutting, the original cause of the dispute, but the removal of travel concessions from strikers is now blocking a deal.

Unite has urged BA to fully restore the travel concessions, arguing it would not cost the airline any money. It claims cabin crew were ready to accept the deal but that Mr Walsh was not interested in an agreement and wanted to break the union.

It also warned it believed a further series of strikes would be strongly supported by cabin crew and will have a "huge impact" on flights.

Singer Billy Bragg will perform for the strikers at a football ground near Heathrow today.