'More BA services than planned' as fresh wave of strikes begins

The airline said it had reintroduced all of its services from Heathrow to New York's JFK airport and would continue to add to its schedule where possible this week, which is the half-term school holiday.

"Our global operations went very well throughout the first week of Unite's strike action and got off to another good start today at the beginning of the second series of strikes," the airline said yesterday.

"We have announced a larger schedule at Heathrow for this round of strikes, because of the numbers of crew reporting for work.

"Our Gatwick cabin crew continue to ignore Unite's calls and we operated a full schedule at the UK's second busiest airport. Flights to and from London City also remain unaffected."

It said it planned to run 70 per cent of long haul flights at Heathrow this week, up from more than 60 per cent last week, and more than 55 per cent of short haul flights, up from more than 50 per cent last week.

It claimed most of its leisure flights go from Gatwick, reducing the impact on holidaymakers, while none of its short haul flights had been affected by the action.

Last night union chiefs from Unite said the strikes continued to be strongly supported by cabin crew, who have now taken 13 days of action since March, costing BA tens of millions of pounds.

Joint leader Derek Simpson yesterday offered to conduct talks in the "full glare" of the media in a bid to break the stalemate.

Mr Simpson said people would be able to see how "unreasonable" the airline's chief executive, Willie Walsh, was being if they could be witness to the negotiations.

He said: "I prefer these negotiations to be in front of a camera. Let the world see what this is all about. If people could see what he is doing, they would know who to blame."

Mr Simpson repeated that the dispute could be resolved if BA fully restored travel concessions taken away from crew who have taken industrial action.

He also claimed complaints about his behaviour during previous negotiations, when he sent out messages by way of his online Twitter account, were a "digression".

He said: "It is all about confidence of management in the workforce and of workforce in the management.

"Clearly there has been a breakdown. If we could get the confidence back a deal is do-able."

Mr Simpson claimed Mr Walsh ended talks on Friday by saying he would meet again, but only after Unite's annual conference, which opens in Manchester today and continues until the end of the current strike.

BA countered: "Willie Walsh made it absolutely clear that he was prepared to go to Manchester to continue talks.

"We remain available for talks at any time."

The two sides met for 12 hours at the conciliation services Acas over two days last week, with little sign of a breakthrough.

Unite said BA continued to operate a reduced schedule because of the industrial action, claiming that more than 100 flights were cancelled from Heathrow yesterday.

"The passengers and revenue from some 53 BA flights today will be handed to BA competitors as they continue to rely on chartered aircraft and codeshare flights operated by other airlines," said a Unite official.

"Now on day 13, the 7m-per day strike is costing BA at least 91m."

Unite is planning another five-day strike from Saturday unless the row is resolved.