As the BA strike enters its third day, both the airline and the Unite union are claiming the upper hand.
In a statement released yesterday (Sunday March 21) BA said that its contingency plans “are continuing to work well”, with addtional flights added into its planned Heathrow and Gatwick schedules, and no evidence of industrial action at overseas airports.
The airline added that is is operating “a full Boeing 777 long-haul programme from the UK to more than 30 destinations around the world”, and has been able to add in extra Boeing 747 flights “due to the numbers of crew reporting for work”.
For its part Unite released a statement entitled “What’s really happening during the BA strike”, claiming that 140 aircraft are parked at Heathrow (as of 1530 on Sunday March 21), and that only nine crew turned up for work yesterday out of 1,100.
The union also claims that the majority of BA’s long-haul services are effectively “ghost flights”, with 49 flights out of Heathrow taking off empty, and says that most services are being flown with the CAA minimum crew, which it claims is four short of the normal crew numbers.
Today (Monday March 22) is the third and final day of this strike period, although a second walkout is planned for four days from March 27.
For more information visit ba.com, unitetheunion.com.
