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British airways cabin crew start five-day strike

05 June 2010 10:40 (UTC +04:00)

The strike, due to last until next Wednesday, is the latest stoppage in a long-running dispute. The disagreement centers on pay, staffing levels and working conditions. With no sign of a breakthrough between BA bosses and the leaders of the Unite union, the union has also threatened to ballot for more strikes in July. The airline has said it plans to fly more than three-quarters of customers who booked flights. It maintains that a growing number of strikers have been returning to work. It has also said it expects to operate all flights to South Africa ahead of the World Cup. These departures will be part of the 80% of long-haul flights it aims to operate from Heathrow next week, up from 70% during the previous walkout, which ended on Wednesday. It also expects to run 60% of short-haul services from the airport, up from 55% during the previous five-day stoppage. Flights from Gatwick and London City airports will continue to be unaffected. Earlier this week, it emerged that the number of passengers British Airways carried in May fell by 14.2% from a year ago, as the impact of the cabin crew strikes hit the airline. BA carried a total of 2.37 million passengers in May, down from 2.76 million a year earlier. Revenue passenger kilometres, a measure of how many full seats flew, were down 11.5%. The financial impact of the strikes continued "at some Â£7m per day", BA said in a statement on Thursday. "The total cost of the strike period can only be assessed at the end of the disruption and will reflect lost bookings and reduced travel volumes offset by some volume driven cost savings," it added.
BMI, British Airways regional branchâ€™s office in Baku told APA-Economics that Baku-London flights were not cancelled due to the strike.