The Christmas plans of a million British Airways passengers were in ruins last night after the airline’s cabin crew voted to strike. The length of the walkout, crippling the airline from December 22 to January 2, shocked both customers and the industry. BA promised to refund passengers and help them find alternative flights. But industry experts said families hoping to travel during the ‘12 Strikes of Christmas’ will almost certainly be marooned.
BA staff seen outside the meeting after the industrial action was confirmed.
Other carriers have few spare seats – if any – at one of the busiest times of the year.
The strike will cost BA, already facing a horrendous financial crisis, at least £500million.
Chief executive Willie Walsh said the airline would ‘be history’ if cabin crews went ahead with the strike. Other executives called the union move ‘commercial suicide’.
At the heart of the dispute are cost-cutting changes to the working conditions, perks and manning levels of cabin crews.
Some 13,000 of them voted by an overwhelming nine to one margin for industrial action.
Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of their union Unite, said he hoped the size of the vote, on an 80 per cent turnout, would force BA to reopen negotiations.
But Mr Walsh showed no sign of backing down last night.
Assistant General Secretary for Unite Len McCleskey said the group are hoping the strike will force BA to reopen negotiations.
The BA chief had already compared the union to King Canute and ‘the Grinch who stole Christmas’ in a Daily Mail article and insiders said he was ‘up for a fight.’
Mr Walsh says his cabin crew earn twice as much as their Virgin Atlantic counterparts with an average salary including bonuses and allowances of £29,900.
Senior cabin crew average around £56,000 a year.
Mr Walsh says BA must cut costs to survive. It lost a record £400million last year and £292million in the first six months of this year while its pension deficit has grown to £3.7billion.
The strike will hit some 7,800 flights. BA said some would still operate, but could not say which.
Domestic and short-haul services are likely to be axed before the more-lucrative long-haul flights are cut. BA carries around 90,000 passengers a day on 650 flights.
The walkouts could see a repeat of the horrific disruption at Heathrow when fog halted flights two years ago, leaving passengers stranded over Christmas.
Millions of flights will be affected by the action this Christmas.
Simon Evans, of the watchdog Air Transport Users Council, urged passengers to ’sit tight and do nothing’ until BA clarified exactly which flights were being cancelled.
He said re-booking now could land passengers with two tickets – and no refund.
Mr Evans said: ‘A passenger whose flight is cancelled will be entitled to a refund or a re-routing of the flight.
‘It should not cost any more. The difficulty will be in getting a re-routed flight in time.’
Bob Atkinson, of the travelsupermarket.com website, warned that tickets at short notice would be hard to come by.
‘Even if BA tried to find alternatives for customers, availability is already very tight,’ he said.
The airline is offering passengers who are booked to travel during the strike period – or 48 hours either side of it – the chance to rebook at no extra cost over the next 12 months.
But this will be of little help to people whose plans are tied to Christmas and New Year.
The airline is also offering to re-route passengers to their destinations by another way or give them refunds.
Passengers will be informed of changes to their schedules by email or text.
Rival airlines will lay on extra flights but they are likely to be quickly booked up and extremely expensive.
It was left unclear whether passengers would be given further compensation for the disruption or having to pay more for other flights.
Frances Tuke, of the travel agents organisation ABTA, said people would be entitled to refunds if their flights were cancelled, but that it was possible strike action could still be averted as negotiations took place between unions and British Airways bosses.
She said: ‘At this stage, our advice would be to sit tight and see what happens in the next 24 hours.
‘It looks as if both sides are continuing to negotiate and we’re still hoping it might be called off.’
Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said: ‘The cabin crew union is holding passengers to ransom.
‘This is deeply disappointing news for everyone. As well as involving huge hassle for air passengers, a strike would actually damage the interests of BA’s employees.’
The Air Transport Users’ Council said travellers who have paid for accommodation separately from their flights will have to claim on insurance, as – unlike package holidays – they will not be automatically covered.
It also warned that passengers who booked after November 2, when Unite announced its strike ballot, may not be covered by travel insurance.
The ballot result was revealed as hundreds of cabin crew, many in uniform, attended a mass meeting at Sandown racecourse in Esher, Surrey.
Officials said it was one of the biggest turnouts in a ballot and one of the largest majorities for industrial action.
Cabin crew will receive £30 a day strike pay, costing Unite more than £500,000 over the 12-day period.
Unite’s Len McCluskey insisted the cabin crew were not ‘mindless militants’, but decent men and women who did not want to bring the company down.
source: dailymail.co.uk
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