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British Airways cancelled more than 99.9 per cent of all flights departing and arriving into the UK on Monday, as the airline’s first-ever pilots’ strike began, sparking travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The industrial action over pay on Monday and Tuesday by members of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) trade union follows around nine months of failed talks.
The carrier, owned by London-listed International Airlines Group (IAG), which operates about 850 flights per day in Britain, said it had no option but to cancel all scheduled flights but five.
On the first day of the strike, about 145,000 passengers faced cancelled international and domestic flights mainly at London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports.
“We urge the union to please sit down with us as quickly as we can so that we can reach an agreement,” BA chief executive Alex Cruz told the BBC.
There were very few passengers milling around the departure area at Heathrow airport Terminal 5 in west London.
“Unfortunately, with no detail from BALPA on which pilots would strike, we had no way of predicting how many would come to work or which aircraft they are qualified to fly, so we had no option but to cancel nearly 100% of our flights,” British Airways said in a statement.
The airline stressed that it remained willing to return to talks but the union; which is seeking a bigger share of company profits, accuses BA for not wanting to negotiate.
Customer frustration
BA and its 4,300 pilots have been locked in a dispute that could disrupt the travel plans of nearly 300,000 people in total over the two days.
Pilots are also threatening to strike for one more day on September 27, and then possibly again closer to the winter holidays, should the dispute drag on.
BALPA rejected a pay increase of 11.5% over three years that the airline proposed in July.
BA says the offer would see flight captains receive “world-class” pay and benefits of around £200,000 ($246,000 or 220,000 euros) a year.
The airline pointed out also that two other unions representing 90% of the airlines’ workers have accepted the 11.5-percent raise.
BA ‘not budging’
BALPA boss Brian Strutton also apologised for the travel chaos, but defended the historic industrial action and blamed the company for failing to negotiate.
“I think British Airways took the decision some weeks ago that they would close down the airline operation and it’s up to them to do things that way.”
BALPA points to a nearly 10% jump in pre-tax profits reported by BA-parent IAG last year to £1.6 Billion.
“We are prepared to negotiate. We are prepared to move on our position, but so far British Airways has said to me: We are not going to budge,” Strutton said.
In early afternoon deals, IAG’s share price sank 2% on the London stock market.
Independent aviation analyst John Strickland said the union had not acknowledged how BA had been forced to embrace radical change in the face of fierce competition.
“BA pilots are striking, on the face of it, about pay but terms and conditions come into it too,” Strickland told AFP.
“They express concern about how BA is being run — whilst not acknowledging just how radically the marketplace has changed for the airline in recent years, with more intense and diverse competition of all kinds from low-cost to premium offers.”
