BA strike – live: Heathrow Terminal 5 looks like a 'ghost town' as 1,700 flights cancelled amid pilot walkout
The 48-hour strike is the biggest walkout in the airline’s history
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Your support makes all the difference.British Airways pilots are walking out for 48 hours in a row over pay.
It's the biggest walkout in the airline's history, with almost all flights cancelled.
British Airways has warned passengers not to show up at the airport if their flight is cancelled.
Follow below for live updates.
Union Balpa has hit back with its own statement on today's strikes. General secretary Brian Strutton said:
British Airways needs to wake up and realise its pilots are determined to be heard.
They’ve previously taken big pay cuts to help the company through hard times. Now BA is making billions of pounds of profit, its pilots have made a fair, reasonable and affordable claim for pay and benefits.
BALPA has consistently offered up chances for the company to negotiate a way forward. British Airways must now put the needs of its staff and passengers first and accept that its pilots will not be bullied or fobbed off.
But the company’s leaders, who themselves are paid huge salaries and have generous benefits packages, won’t listen, are refusing to negotiate and are putting profits before the needs of passengers and staff.
This strike will have cost the company considerably more than the investment needed to settle this dispute.
It is time to get back to the negotiating table and put together a serious offer that will end this dispute.
The Independent's Simon Calder is reporting from Heathrow Terminal 5 today, which he says is as quiet as it has been since the Icelandic ash cloud in 2010.
On the first morning of a two-day pilots’ strike at British Airways, passengers could fly anywhere they wished, so long as it was Tokyo, Cairo (on Air Belgium) or Madrid (on Iberia).
British Airways boss Alex Cruz was speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning:
Pilots’ union general secretary, Brian Strutton, tells The Independent:
It’s a shame British Airways couldn’t get more flights operating today, but that’s their choice.
Heathrow Airport is likely to lose over £3m in passenger fees from non-flying BA passengers, as well as lost retail and parking revenue.
The airspace over central London looking surprisingly quiet today, according to live data from Flight Radar 24:
Steve Miley, senior market analyst at AskTraders.com, said:
British Airways embarked on a cost-reduction strategy that triggered the industrial action of its pilots.
Even though British Airways took measures to communicate in advance the industrial action, the reputation of the airline has been affected.
Heathrow Terminal 5 is empty today as almost all British Airways flights are cancelled:
From The Independent's Simon Calder, who is at Heathrow today:
"One unfortunate passenger who had been rebooked by BA on another airline hadn’t spotted it was from a different airport and was furious when turned up at Gatwick and discovered his mistake."
Regarding compensation for the strikes, David Bott, senior partner at flight delay compensation law firm, Bott and Co, said:
These strikes are creating chaos for millions of passengers and will be extremely costly for British Airways.
The pay disputes are well within the airline’s control and the management of disgruntled staff is simply part and parcel of running any business and would not be considered an extraordinary circumstance.
In light of this, affected passengers may be entitled to claim compensation of up to €600 each under EU Regulation 261/2004, where their flights are cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice or delayed for over three hours.
It’s also worth noting that the regulation does not specify that re-routing has to be with the same air carrier. Therefore, British Airways has a duty to re-route their passengers affected by a cancelled flight at the earliest available opportunity on ANY airline, not just a British Airways plane.
People who have been delayed for more than two hours should also be provided with food and drink vouchers as well as means to communicate, including being entitled to a telephone call and an email. Accommodation must be provided if passengers are delayed overnight and transport to and from the accommodation and the airport must also be provided.
You can find out more about how to claim compensation here: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/flight-delay-compensation-how-to-claim-eu-airline-uk-brexit-a8728381.html
It isn't just British Airways staff that are striking this month. British pilots working for Ryanair are walking out for seven days this month, from 18-19 September and then alternate dates: 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29 September.
Read more about the Ryanair strikes here: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ryanair-strikes-pilots-balpa-union-flight-cancellations-airport-a9091976.html
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