The British Airways cabin crew dispute has now cost the airline £112m sterling and it could lose £1.4 billion as passengers switch to other carriers, union leaders claimed today.
Members of the Unite union stayed on strike for the fourth day of a five-day walkout, with another five-day stoppage due to start on Saturday. Talks between BA management and the union ended after six hours last night with little sign of a breakthrough to the long-running dispute.
Cabin crew have now taken 16 days of strike action since March, with further walkouts threatened in the summer unless the deadlock is broken.
Unite said BA stood to lose £1.4 billion in lost sales as passengers take their custom elsewhere. The union maintained the strike was being strongly supported by cabin crew and was having a huge impact on flights. Officials claimed just one BA flight took off from Heathrow yesterday afternoon between 1pm and 3pm.
Unite has warned of further strikes in the summer, but the union will have to hold a fresh ballot of members, which is likely to take four or five weeks to organise.
BA plans to increase its flying schedule during the final wave of strikes by cabin crew next week because of 'growing numbers' of staff wanting to work as normal, the airline said yesterday.
BA said it will increase its Heathrow long-haul schedule to more than 80% next week - up from 70% this week and 60% in the first strike period in March. It will be increasing its Heathrow short-haul schedule to 60% of flights, up from more than 55% this week and more than 50% during the earlier strikes.
BA said flights at Gatwick, the UK's second busiest airport, will remain unaffected by industrial action due to the levels of cabin crew 'ignoring' Unite's strike calls. Flights at London City airport will also operate as normal.
The airline said it will fly its full schedule - 26 departures a week - to South Africa with thousands of fans due to fly out to Johannesburg and Cape Town from Heathrow Terminal 5 ahead of the World Cup kick-off.
BA said it will also continue to fly its entire Heathrow to New York JFK schedule and serve more than 85% of its long-haul destinations and 100% of its short-haul network.
