More British Airways flights are now expected to operate during the proposed cabin crew dispute following pledges from affected staff members, says the airline.
    British Airways is to increase its flying schedule for the period of Unite’s strikes as larger volumes of cabin crew call the airline to offer to work in support of the company’s contingency operation, said a statement.
    Following Unite’s decision to call strikes for March 20, 21 and 22, the airline published its flying schedules for the affected period on Monday, aiming to fly 60 per cent of its customers as planned. 
    “Since Monday, the number of cabin crew offering to work as normal has increased significantly – and is expected to grow further, 
    ”British Airways is also pleased that the number of other airlines offering their help for the strike period through charters or provision of spare seats has increased from 50 on Monday to more than 60.
     “These developments have enabled the airline to reinstate some previously cancelled flights and provide extra capacity for both longhaul and shorthaul destinations. For example, this will allow the airline to fly home more competitors and supporters from the Winter Paralympics in Vancouver” it said.
    Willie Walsh, British Airways chief executive, said: “The determination of our colleagues across the whole business to keep the flag flying this weekend is increasing.
    “I am delighted by the numbers of cabin crew who have been getting in touch with us to express their disillusion with Unite’s position. Our crews just want to work as normal, do their usual terrific job and look after our customers.
    “We will now have the potential to fly more than 4,000 additional customers per day and serve more destinations. We believe this is a helpful move at a time when customers are facing rising fares with alternative carriers.
    “Morale among our operations teams is high. Yesterday was our most punctual day at Heathrow for months, thanks to the efforts of all parts of the airline” he added.

    
     British Airways says it hopes to keep around 60 per cent of its customers flying through the cabin crew strike threatened for March 20-22.
    “The flag will continue to fly”, said BA’s chief executive, Willie Walsh.
     Heathrow is likely to be the worst affected of the major airports, but BA still expects to operate around 60 per cent of long haul and 30 per cent of short haul services from the hub.
     Across the airline it aims to fly around 45,000 customers each day on March 20, 21 and 22 representing around 60 per cent of customers originally booked to fly on these days. In addition, many thousands more customers will be offered seats on alternative British Airways flights or on services operated by other airlines.
     BA said that proposals for the second strike period threatened by the Unite union (March 27-30) will be announced after the first strike period has ended but the “vast majority of flights remain in the schedule”.
    It adds “the airline is still available to hold further talks but wants customers to have early warning of its flying schedule to allow sufficient time for alternative travel arrangements to be made”.
    In the first strike period, the airline plans to operate all longhaul flights to and from Gatwick and more than half of shorthaul flights at the airport. All flights to and from London City airport will be unaffected by the strike action.
   At Heathrow the airline will continue to operate more than 60 per cent of its longhaul flights to and from the airport during the first three days of action.
    The airline will operate some of its own shorthaul flights at Heathrow, and will supplement its schedule by leasing up to 22 aircraft with pilots and crews from eight different airlines based in the UK and Europe. This will enable the airline to operate around 30 per cent of its shorthaul schedule.
    British Airways has also agreed with 40 other carriers that customers can be rebooked free of charge during the actual strike period onto their flights if they had been due to travel on a BA flight which has been cancelled.  
    Customers should check their bookings on www.ba.com to see if their flight is still operating.
    Willie Walsh, British Airways’ chief executive, said:  ”We are deeply sorry that our customers are the innocent victims of this cynical attack on their travel plans by the leaders of Unite.
    “We will continue to try to prevent this strike taking place, but we have reached a point when we must now offer some clarity to our customers who have waited with great patience since Friday when the strike dates were first announced.
    “Due to the numbers of cabin crew who have called in to offer their services over the weekend, the schedule will be slightly larger than we had originally anticipated.
    “Despite the desire of Unite’s leadership to ground the airline, the flag will continue to fly. Around 60 per cent of our customers will be able to fly as planned and many thousands more can be rebooked onto alternative BA flights or onto rival airlines.
   “I recognise the frustration of customers booked for travel from March 27 onwards, when the second stoppage is due to begin, and we will do all we can to give them more clarity about their specific flight number once we start to understand just how many cabin crew are willing to work as normal.
   “We remain absolutely determined to search for a sensible settlement and our door remains open to Unite, day or night. It is not too late for the Unite to call off this action and we will do all we can to reinstate some of the cancelled flights.”
   Customers in the UK wishing to rebook their flights can contact the airline on 0800 727 800 which is a free telephone line. British Airways has opened up an extra call centre manned by staff volunteers to help customers with rebooking and refunding queries
    British Airways’ flight programme is complex, involving the combination of rosters for 13,000 cabin crew, more than 3,000 pilots and 230 aircraft operating around 650 services in and out of Heathrow and Gatwick every day. More than 8,000 flight and cabin crew have to be in the right place at the right time, either on aircraft, at airports or in crew hotels in more than 140 cities in more than 70 countries, every day. it says.
   Customers are advised to check ba.com on a regular basis to see if their flight is still operating before departing for the airport. If their flight has been cancelled they should not come to the airport but contact British Airways or their travel agent.  

Key points of British Airways’ schedule for customers:

·     More than 60 per cent of longhaul services into and out of London Heathrow will operate as planned between March 20 and March 22. The airline may be able to add to this schedule in the days ahead.
·     The airline will be able to operate some of its own shorthaul flights at Heathrow. It will supplement this schedule by hiring in up to 20 aircraft with their own pilots and cabin crew.  This combination will enable around 30 per cent of shorthaul flights to operate as normal. The airline may be able to add to this schedule in the days ahead.
·     The airline will operate a full schedule of longhaul services at London Gatwick (to The Maldives, Tampa, Orlando, Egypt and Caribbean destinations) during the strike period. It will also operate more than half of its shorthaul network at Gatwick.
·     Flights operated to and from London City will operate as normal, including services to and from New York.
·     Flights operated by subsidiary OpenSkies between Paris and New York will operate as normal. Flights operated by British Airways franchise partners (Comair in South Africa and Sun Air in Scandinavia) will operate as normal. Flights operated by other carriers (including oneworld Alliance partners) which have a BA codeshare flight number will operate as normal.
·     All dedicated cargo freighter services continue to operate as normal.

    
   British Airways has drawn up a detailed contingency plan to keep the airline flying after the Unite union announced a series of strikes by its cabin crew members late March.
    The airline is optimistic that a substantial number of its flights will operate from Heathrow, despite proposal for strikes between 20-22 March and 27-30 March. London City Airport is expected to be unaffected and many – if not all – flights are likely to operate from Gatwick.
    Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive, said that the company had “done everything in its power” to reach agreement with the union. 
     He said that, despite the serious economic conditions, there were no pay cuts and or compulsory redundancies being proposed and the dispute was primarily over staffing levels and structures.
     He added “at Heathrow we have got very developed contingency plan which will see us operating a significant part of the programme”.

Amongst the proposals are

• The use of around 1,000 staff from other parts of the airline who have been trained to work as in-flight cabin crew.
• The hiring of fully-crewed chartered aircraft to operate services on European routes.
• The rescheduling and consolidation of many flights.