British Airways said Sunday it was reinstating some flights on the second day of a strike after more cabin crew than expected turned up for work, but the union claimed it held the upper hand. BA said it would operate eight long-haul flights and 18 short-haul flights which it had earlier expected to cancel. But the Unite union said half of BA’s 250 planes had been grounded on the first day of the action. The union said 80 per cent of its 12,000 cabin crew members walked out on the first day Saturday of the three-day strike. It said it had turned BA’s flagship Terminal 5 into a “ghost down”. But BA said 1,157 cabin crew had turned up for work at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, accounting for 97 per cent of crew on duty at Gatwick and just over half the scheduled staff at Heathrow. As a result it was reinstating flights on Sunday to destinations such as Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Cape Town.
As well as using non-striking staff, the airline is offering traveler’s seats on planes leased from other carriers, including budget airline Ryanair. In a video massage late Saturday, BA chief executive Willie Walsh said the contingency plans had worked “better than expected”. “We have had a great turnout at Gatwick – incredible, every single cabin crew rostered to fly today has come to work and we have had about 50 per cent of our cabin crew arrive at Heathrow, so they are voting with their feet,” he said. He added: “I really do deeply regret that people’s travel plans have been disrupted, but it is great to see people sticking with BA and people backing BA and with their support we will definitely get through this.”
The union however has dismissed BA’s claims and even accused it of operating empty planes as a face-saving measure. Unite claimed planes were stacking up on the ground on Saturday, turning Heathrow into a giant parking lot of BA aircraft with 85 at a standstill. The union is opposed to the airline’s cost-cutting measures, which would see some of the most lucrative package for cabin crew in the industry substantially downgraded.