BA cabin crew to strike over Christmas

News at Heathrow 15/12/2009

BMI axes routes and staff : 2009 : Full body scanners for Heathrow

Rival airlines hike up prices to cash in

Passengers flying with British Airways over the Christmas period have been told they will be offered alternative flights where possible or offering refunds. Rival airlines have been inundated with passengers who have yet to book their flights and prices are reaching record levels.

Cabin crew working at BA have decided by a nine to one margin to strike against BA’s insistence on new working conditions. Redundancies have already taken place as well as cuts in some routes and the airline no longer offering food on some short haul destinations.

The stricken airline has been battling all year to find ways to carry on trading amidst dreadful losses over the past 12 months. The airline lost £400 million during 2008 and Willie Walsh, the boss of BA has been struggling to come up with a series of measures that staff at BA would accept. He has said that unless his staff agrees to the cuts and changes in working arrangements, the airline will be unable to continue, some others have said that the strike action is “commercial suicide”.

The strike will affect more than 7,800 flights and cost the airline more than £500 million in lost revenue. The union will fork out more than £500,000 in strike pay over the 12 day period of industrial action. Although there is still a window of opportunity for the strike action to be called off if negotiations can continue, the shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, said the “cabin crew union is holding passengers to ransom”.

BMI axes routes and staff : 2009 : Full body scanners for Heathrow

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