BALPA and BA talks breakdown

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LONDON (Reuters) - The British Air Line Pilots' Association has withdrawn court action against airline British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) <BAY.L>, a BALPA spokesman said, signalling a potentially costly pilots' strike has been averted.
Shares in British Airways climbed 5.2 percent to 213 by 4:24 p.m. on Thursday.
"We have withdrawn the action," said BALPA spokesman Keith Bill by phone on Thursday. "We will give our reasons later."
The union had gone to court to assert its right to strike because members were unhappy that pilots at BA's OpenSkies subsidiary airline will have different conditions to existing staff.
British Airways in a statement: "The union accepted in court that its ballot in support of industrial action was time-expired and gave an undertaking not to pursue any future ballot on the same issue."
BALPA's members were concerned that OpenSkies, which will fly passengers from European mainland capitals to the United States, will use BA planes, support staff and managers but not BA pilots.
BA welcomed the news the court action had come to an end just four days into an expected two-week trial, noting that tickets for the first OpenSkies flight from Paris to New York on Jun. 19 went on sale on Thursday.
BALPA had asked the court to rule that its right to strike over BA's proposed OpenSkies service was not limited by BA's rights to establish operations in other EU states.
BALPA said earlier this year 86 percent of its 3,000 pilots at BA had voted for industrial action. The strike threat was not the first for BA, which a year ago narrowly averted a costly 48-hour strike by cabin crew by agreeing new working conditions.