War of words intensifies over British Airways strike

The war of words over the British Airways strike intensified yesterday night, with the airline claiming more cabin crew had returned to work, while political leaders clashed over disputes which have broken out in the run-up to the election.

BA's chief executive Willie Walsh said in an internal message to staff that yesterday, the first day of the current four-day walkout, 63 per cent of crew rostered to work had reported for duty, six per cent more than during last weekend's industrial action.

More than 60,000 passengers were flown by BA last Saturday on 470 flights, compared with 43,000 on 350 flights the Saturday before, he said.

"Our operations have been strong and the number of crew reporting for duty means we are flying our expected contingency schedule.

"I would like to thank staff for their efforts which are making a real difference to our customers," he said.

Unite gave a different picture, claiming that only 359 crew reported for duty yesterday, including 100 international employees who were not on strike.

A total of 331 cabin crew have declared themselves to be on strike and a further 21 are sick, said Unite, claiming that more than 50 per cent of those rostered to work had joined the walkout. A union official said: "BA's claim that most crew are working is another distortion.

"We believe that today BA is trying to run its service with only around 15 per cent of cabin crew who should be working normally. We also have reports that very few bags are being loaded onto the BA aircraft all day. There is a heavy reliance on the leased planes to maintain European service.

Reports also indicate that BA flights are leaving empty. They set off for a destination, expected to be a European city, switch planes and return. This is to keep up the pretence of planes taking off and landing as normal.

"Most long-haul flights are running with two fewer crew."

BA said it was flying a full schedule at Gatwick and London City airports as well as increased services from Heathrow.

A BA spokesman said: "Our operations continue to go well today and we remain on track to deliver our objective of flying more than 75 per cent of our customers to their destinations during this strike period.