BA strike: information for travellers
Updated on 26 March 2010
With the second phase of industrial action by BA cabin crew due to begin on Saturday 27 March, Channel 4 News online looks at how the strike action could affect travellers.
British Airways told Channel 4 News on Saturday 27 March that all flights at London Gatwick and London City will be operating today.
A spokesman said: "The vast majority of flights are operating as normal at Heathrow.
"For more details, passengers travelling today should go to the British Airways website."
On Tuesday British Airways published its contingency schedule for the second phase of the strike, between 27 and 30 March.
In a press statement, BA said it had expanded its flight schedules for Unite's strike period of March 27, 28, 29, 30.
The press statement went on: "The airline will run a full operation using its own aircraft at London Gatwick for the second strike period and all flights to and from London City will remain unaffected.
"At Heathrow the airline will extend its schedule to include up to 55 per cent of shorthaul flights and 70 per cent of longhaul flights.
"The airline will continue to supplement its shorthaul schedule by leasing up to 11 aircraft with pilots and crews each day from six different airlines based in the UK and Europe.
"Customers who are booked on flights that have now been cancelled will be offered seats on alternative British Airways flights or on services operated by other airlines or offered a full refund. (...)
"British Airways has again made arrangements with more than 60 other carriers, so that customers can be rebooked free of charge onto their flights if they had been due to travel on a BA flight that has been cancelled."
BA is advising customers to check their bookings at www.ba.com. Customers can re-book or claim a refund, either online or by calling 0800 727 800.
A British Airways spokesperson told Channel 4 News: "The call centre has been very busy today, but we have all phones operating. As of 0900 hours today customers were experiencing an average 12-minute delay, but that is now reducing."
British Airways website
- cabin crew strike: latest information
On Monday 22 March British Airways told Channel 4 News online: "Between 23 and 26 March, although there are no strike dates planned, we still give our customers the option to re-book within 355 days – unless you are travelling from London City or on a Gatwick long-haul flight.
"Until a schedule has been announced for between the 27 and 31 March, customers have the option to re-book or claim a refund within 355 days – unless you are travelling from London City or on a Gatwick long-haul flight.
"All the details of the revised schedule should be on the BA website around five days in advance of the strike date.
"We are advising customers to go to www.ba.com as a first port of call because there is an extensive amount of information there. The phone number for any inquiries regarding flights is 0800 727 800.
"People can to go to www.ba.com/managemybooking, and they will then be able to see what is happening to their flight."
The experts' view
Simon Calder, chief travel writer for The Independent, told Channel 4 News that the planned strike days were so restricted "that BA will be able to run the vast majority of flights" on those days.
He noted that any passengers who had booked tickets with British Airways for the strike days "are probably feeling slightly foolish for having booked with BA in the first place".
He continued: "There will be almost unconfined joy among BA's rivals at the amount of damage cabin crew are inflicting without actually going on strike - everyone from easyJet (now looking like the reliable business travellers' choice) Virgin Atlantic and particularly Emirates. Emirates is hoping it will get huge benefits from this."
Rochelle Turner, head of research at Which? Holiday, said: "For people travelling from London Gatwick long-haul or London City, they won't be affected. But for everyone else they're in a difficult situation. They can't claim on insurance. If they've booked independently, they won't be able to claim for consequential loss."
She recommended that travellers consult the BA website: "The information on the website is as up to date as you will find - just because they're trying to do their best for the people booked on their flights. There isn't really any other place you can go that will provide information, rather than speculation."
BA's competitors
Virgin Atlantic Airways told Channel 4 News: "All of our aircraft are being fully utilised in our flying programme and as such we are unable to offer any extra services during this time.
"Many of our flights are very busy over the affected periods but we will try and assist passengers as much as we can, and we would advise passengers to book tickets as soon as possible."
EasyJet said: "No, we won't be putting on extra flights as we still have good availability over that period."
On Friday Flybe confirmed additional capacity in response to the industrial action at BA.
In a statement, the domestic carrier said: "Flybe can confirm it has increased the number of seats available on a number of our UK and European routes. Specifically, these are London Gatwick to and from Aberdeen, Jersey and Dusseldorf.
"Additionally, Flybe has upped the number of seats available for purchase from Southampton to a range of destinations to assist BA customers who otherwise might fly from Heathrow or Gatwick."
