British Airways (BA) will go on strike for 12 days

[andorra-airport]

"As the dispute moved towards the courts, competitors announced measures to accommodate some passengers who fear cancellation of their BA flights. Virgin Atlantic has chartered bigger aircraft to fly between London and New York, Boston and Washington. The move will add about 1,000 extra seats, or 10 per cent of its capacity" (The Times)

I guess more 747's then the A340's they operate on those routes???

[andorra-airport]

I found the answer to my own question... "Passengers will fly on an Airbus A340-600 rather than an A340-300 to free up an additional 68 seats" (Dailymail)

[airazurxtror]

The strike has been declared illegal by a High Court - and won't take place until next year (if ever) :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8418805.stm

[cnc]

at last a judge with common sense

[flightlover]

at last a judge with common sense

hmmm... It just seems not wright to me. How many of those 90% of those in favour are going to leave the company? I bet it is less than 10% wich leaves still 80% in favour of the strike. So how fare is that ruling?

I bet the judge just didn't want to get the blame for disturbing the festivities by ruling the strike could go thrue on these days. It's just this kind of rulings that make wildcat strikes more favourable for me as there is not much they can do against it.

AND YESS I KNOW THIS IS A VERY CONTESTED POINT OF VIEW, I KNOW THAT AND DON'T NEED TO BE REMINDED TO THAT. IT IS JUST MY OPINION I EXPRESS, AS YOU CAN EXPRESS YOURS.

[euroflyer]

It's just this kind of rulings that make wildcat strikes more favourable for me as there is not much they can do against it.

AND YESS I KNOW THIS IS A VERY CONTESTED POINT OF VIEW, I KNOW THAT AND DON'T NEED TO BE REMINDED TO THAT. IT IS JUST MY OPINION I EXPRESS, AS YOU CAN EXPRESS YOURS.

Except that in most European countries wildcat strikes are just highly illegal and therefore in fact not possible at all (as far as I am aware this includes the UK as well as most Scandinavian and northern European countries, Germany and most of Central and Eastern Europe; wildcat strikes are more or less only taking place in Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, maybe Italy and Greece). Usually going on strike without a proper and transparent ballot organised by a recognised trade union organisation and / or company works council is a broadly accepted reason for an employer to dismiss an employee immediately. The same applies in most countries if the 'reason' given for the strike relates not directly to an item which is part of current negotiations between social partners at sector, interprofessional or company level.

This is not even my opinion, it is just a legal fact.

[FlightMate]

Yeah but then, when you give a proper notice of the strike, you did a ballot, the management decides to go to court instead of negociating...

Go figure...

[regi]

The explanation of the court is now that the ballot was not legal because people who didn't work at BA anylonger could also vote.

They have to be careful for a wildcat strike.
We do all know what is legal or not. But in the end it is the number that counts. Meaning: whatever law there exists, if the people disobbey en masse, no legislation works anymore.

I am curious what effect this will have for the Christmas flights of BA.
In Belgium employees solve this by staying home sick. Stress. By the way: if you can prove that you are sick because of your working conditions, the blame comes to your employer. Watch out, BA !

If 10,000 BA employees stay home sick, BA can never send enough health inspectors to check if the sick leave is justified.

[regi]

and now the Eurostar trains won't ride for the entire weekend.

Is this a conspiracy by the UK government to keep the English home to spend their money in the UK ?

[sdbelgium]

BBC BREAKING NEWS:

BA cabin crew to strike from May 18-22, May 24-28, May 30-June 3 and June 5-9

[regi]

you probably can imagine that I start to sweat a bit with flights coming up in July with BA.

[sn26567]

BA Plans To Fly More Than 70 Per Cent Of Customers

British Airways has today published contingency plans for Unite’s 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 London City airport during the entire strike period.

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.

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 UK and Europe.

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 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 Britain’s links with the world.

“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 programme 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 UK wishing to rebook their flights can contact the airline on 0800 727 800 which is a free telephone line. British Airways has opened up an extra call centre manned by staff volunteers to help customers with rebooking and refunding queries

British Airways’ flight programme 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 London City will operate as normal, including services to and from New York.
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 Paris and New York and Paris and Washington will operate as normal. Flights operated by British Airways franchise partners (Comair in South Africa and Sun Air in Scandinavia) will operate as normal. Flights operated by other carriers (including oneworld Alliance partners) which have a BA codeshare flight number will operate as normal.

All dedicated cargo freighter services continue to operate as normal.

BA, May 13, 2010

[sdbelgium]

Flights that will operate to BRU are: 392, 394 and 398 (on Tue, Wed, Thu and Fri). Flights 388, 396 and 404 are cancelled. No upgrades foreseen at this moment. On 22MAY10, only 394 and 404 will operate (A320).