Cabin crew at British Airways have begun a three-day strike over pay and conditions, but there is disagreement between the company and union leaders over the impact to passengers.
BA claimed that around 50% of cabin crew staff had turned up for work at Heathrow, but the Unite trade union insisted that 80% of its 12,000 members had supported the first day of a three-day walkout.
The union said BA's Terminal 5 at Heathrow was like a 'ghost town', adding that the airline contingency plans were failing.
BA described the union's claims as 'rubbish', and said it had reinstated some long-haul flights this weekend because more staff had worked, including services to Miami, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, JFK in New York and Cape Town.
The action follows the breakdown yesterday of talks between the airline's Chief Executive Willie Walsh and the trade union.
Meanwhile, BA confirmed that Ryanair is one of the companies providing 'wet lease' charter assistance during the ongoing strike.
A wet lease is an arrangement in which one airline provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance and insurance to another.
The aircraft will have Ryanair crew on board but will provide a BA service, such as complimentary food and drink.
Ryanair is providing wet lease assistance to BA on flights from Gatwick to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.
BA said it had so far agreed wet lease charter deals with Jet2, Astraeus, Titan, Euro Atlantic, Transavia, Viking and Arkefly.
Iberia is also laying on an aircraft between Heathrow Terminal 3 and Madrid.
More than 1,000 flights were set to be cancelled in the first phase of the action, with a second walkout to follow for four days from 27 March, targeted at the busy Easter holiday period.
Unite said early indications are that all its members are solidly supporting the three-day strike.
The expected chaos at BA's hubs at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports failed to materialise because the airline has made contingency plans for about 60% of passengers.
A total of 1,100 BA flights out of the approximately 1,950 scheduled to operate during the first strike were to be cancelled.
BA said it is confident of keeping at least 60% of passengers flying, using staff who are not striking, as well as using up to 22 planes with pilots and crew leased from other European airlines.
A BA spokeswoman said the airline had 'got off to a good start' at Heathrow and Gatwick.
She said: 'We aim to fly as many customers as we can this weekend. At Heathrow and Gatwick we have got off to a good start.
'Cabin crew are reporting as normal at Gatwick and the numbers reporting at Heathrow are above the levels we need to operate our published schedule.
'This is the biggest contingency plan we have ever launched.'
As a long-running war of words broke down into open acrimony yesterday, Unite General Secretary Tony Woodley angrily accused BA of wanting 'to go to war'.
Mr Walsh said the strike was 'deeply regrettable' but defiantly promised passengers that many would be able to fly.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has condemned the strike, saying it was 'in no-one's interest' and would cause 'unacceptable inconvenience' to passengers.
He urged BA management and workers to hold fresh talks as soon as possible.
The dispute centres on cost-cutting changes to working conditions by the airline, which the union says will lead to the introduction of a 'second tier workforce on poorer pay and conditions'.
BA said last month it expected to notch up a record loss in the current financial year due to weak demand for air travel.
It made better than expected pre-tax losses of £50m (€57m) in the last three months of 2009.
In December, BA won a legal battle to prevent a 12-day walkout by cabin crew over Christmas and New Year after a judge ruled that a ballot of staff by Unite was invalid.
