BA urged to resolve cabin crew dispute

Union leaders issued a fresh plea to resolve the bitter British Airways cabin crew dispute last night after claiming that a series of strikes had now cost the airline £63 million.

Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, also warned that BA will lose business when passengers "look elsewhere" for flights during the peak summer period.

Union members were on strike for the second day of a five-day walkout, claiming the action was being strongly supported, with short-haul and long-haul flights being grounded.

BA countered that it had more crew than it needed to operate its contingency schedule and as a result was adding flights.

"The numbers of cabin crew reporting at Heathrow are still at the levels we need to operate our published schedule and Gatwick cabin crew continue to report as normal.

"We are carrying more than 60,000 customers a day throughout the industrial action and we are keeping the flag flying.

"We continue to fly a full normal schedule at Gatwick and London City Airports. At Heathrow we continue to fly more than 60 per cent of our long-haul flights and more than 50 per cent of our short-haul flights," the airline said.

According to its website BA was operating roughly the same number of flights as Monday.

Three Heathrow to New York flights were cancelled yesterday as well as eight Heathrow-Manchester and eight Heathrow-Glasgow services.

Among other Heathrow-departing flights which were axed yesterday were four to Paris, four to Munich, three to Frankfurt and two to Rome.

Unite clashed again with BA over the effect of the strike, claiming the airline was counting international cabin crew, who are not involved in the dispute, in its figures.

Officials said 473 staff did not turn up to work yesterday in BA's Worldwide Flights division, with 361 reporting for duty, although this included temporary crew, international crew, and volunteers, so around 56 per cent of staff were on strike.

In its Euro fleet, 274 staff did not report to work, Unite said, adding that 248 went in, well below the normal day's staffing.

Union sources said they believed Mr Walsh sent a memo to staff on Monday saying that over the last few months 2,000 Bassa (British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association) members had left the payroll.

Union officials said this was untrue, maintaining that since January 2010 they have only lost 568 people.

Mr Woodley said: "This strike is now in day nine. The meter is running at £7 million per day, which means BA has lost £63 million at least on the strike - and that is before BA counts the cost of business lost when passengers look elsewhere during the peak summer period.

"On what planet does it make sound business sense to spend shareholders' and investors' money this way? Or to allow this instability to drag on? The solution lies with Willie Walsh. He must waste no further time or resources but instead work with us to settle this strike."

Unite is planning two further five-day strikes unless the deadlock is broken.