195,000 passengers hit as British Airways faces first global pilot strike
- British Airways threatens to strip pilots and their families of free travel perks as two-day strike goes ahead
British Airways pilots began a 48-hour strike on Monday, grounding nearly all of the airline’s flights and disrupting thousands of travellers’ plans in unprecedented industrial action over a pay dispute.
The airline, part of the International Airlines Group, cancelled 1,700 flights to and from London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Monday and Tuesday ahead of action by British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) members in BA’s first ever pilot strike.
The disruptions will affect mainly London, where BA operates from its hub at Heathrow airport and also Gatwick.
The outages will also extend to other locales such as Edinburgh, though London City, popular with business travellers, won’t be affected as those flights are operated by BA’s CityFlyer affiliate.
“We don’t underestimate the inconvenience caused, for which we are deeply sorry,” BA said in a statement to customers on Sunday.
The airline estimated that some 195,000 passengers would be affected, and has come in for criticism over how it handled communications with passengers ahead of the strikes.
Following the strikes on Monday and Tuesday, another day of industrial action is scheduled for September 27.
BALPA has said that BA should share more of its profits with its 4,300 pilots, rejecting a pay increase of 11.5 per cent over three years that the airline proposed in July.
BA has said the strike action was unjustifiable as its pay offer was fair.
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The airline says the offer would see flight captains receive “world-class” pay and benefits of around £200,000 (US$246,000) a year.
BALPA counters that co-pilots’ salaries average around £70,000 – and that of junior ones drops down to just £26,000.
This leaves some in heavy debt since they must first undergo training that the BBC estimates costs around £100,000.
“This strike will have cost the company considerably more than the investment needed to settle this dispute,” BALPA General Secretary Brian Strutton said in a statement on the eve of the strike.
BALPA tweeted on Sunday: “One day of strike action will cost BA, on their own figures, £40 million”.
The airline has sent an email warning the pilots that anyone who goes on strike will lose generous travel perks for themselves and their families for the next three years, the Financial Times reported.
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One pilot told The Guardian: “It’s not really about money, it’s about respect. We’ve effectively been lied to. We’ve given up a serious pension scheme, pay and pay rises when the company was weak – all on the promise that when the company was strong and giving up proper returns to its investors, we would benefit.”
Alex Cruz, the company’s chief executive, is currently paid £1.3 million (US$1.6 million). In August BA’s parent firm, IAG, reported a 20 per cent rise in its pre-tax second-quarter profit. In 2018 it reported annual profits of £2.6 billion.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government urged both sides Friday “to get round the table and sort this out”.
The strike is the latest blow for passengers at an airline that once called itself the “world’s favourite” but has looked increasingly accident-prone.
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The fragility of BA’s IT security was laid bare last year when hackers stole the personal data of half a million customers, a breach that led to a £183 million fine.
In July a computer systems glitch meant that more than 500 flights were cancelled or delayed, causing problems for tens of thousands of passengers.
In 2017 a power cut left 75,000 passengers stranded. Pilots and crew said they were left to deal with the fallout, which went on for several days.
Reuters, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Agence France-Presse
