Walsh: BA 'prepared' for cabin staff strike
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh said he believes the carrier is "as prepared as we can be" for a flight attendants strike with a contingency plan including 23 aircraft wet-leased from other UK and European airlines.
By next week, BA will have the aircraft and a pool of 1,000 volunteer cabin staff, including role-swapping pilots, at its disposal. During a webcast employee briefing cited by Sky News, Walsh said approximately 6,000 staff, equal to around a quarter of BA's noncabin-crew workforce, had volunteered for airside or landside positions to help in the event of industrial action (ATWOnline, March 1).
"These plans will allow us to protect our customers' travel arrangements better than many people imagined possible in the difficult conditions that a strike by the biggest section of our workforce is bound to cause," Walsh said.
He added that he expects BA will be able to operate all services from London City and all long-haul and 50% of short-haul flights out of Gatwick during the expected strike. He gave no indication of how mainline operations at Heathrow would be affected. He also denied reports that bookings have fallen 30% in the wake of the Unite union's strike vote.
The union has until March 15 to give BA notice of a strike, which could start from a week later. Both parties are negotiating under the auspices of the UK's Trades Union Congress.
ATW Daily News 04/03/10