A tough Monday for The UK flag carrier,British Airways (BA) as pilots began a 48-hour strike ,the first strike by pilots in decades, a walkout that could cost the carrier 80 million pounds ($98 million).
Boris Johnson,the spokeswoman for Prime Minister has advised both sides to end the dispute.
The UK flag carrier grounded the vast majority of its daily, round-trip flights for two days i.e., for today and tomorrow disrupting thousands of travellers’ plans in unprecedented industrial action over a nine-month pay dispute between the airlines and its 4,300 pilots. Passengers that are affected have been rebooked with other airlines or given alternate dates to fly, as said by the BA spokeswoman. Others have been given refunds.
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has rejected a pay hike of 11.5 percent over three years that the airline proposed in July. As said by BA, this offer would see flight captains receive “world-class” pay and benefits of around £200,000 ($246,000 or 220,000 euros) a year.
But, BALPA counters that co-pilots´ salaries average around £70,000 — and that of junior ones drops down to just £26,000.This leaves a few in heavy debt since they must first undergo training that the BBC estimates the costs around £100,000.
On Sunday BALPA tweeted “One day of strike action will cost BA, on their own figures, £40 million,” .
The disruptions will influence mostly its London operation, where BA operates from its hub at Heathrow airport and also Gatwick. The outages will also widen to other locales such as Edinburgh, but London City, most accepted with business travelers, won’t be affected as those flights are operated by BA’s CityFlyer affiliate.
Pilots vowed to go-ahead with the strike following a unsuccessful talk over a new contract. The airline accused BALPA of not acting in good faith by making “an eleventh hour inflated proposal” which BA said would cost an additional 50 million pounds. The pilots say that BA has ignored valid proposals for higher wages and improved benefits and their demands amount to a part of that sum.
The airline in an email warned the pilots that anyone who goes on strike will lose generous travel perks for themselves and their families for the next three years. BA has also issued “various threats which suggest BA has no intention of helping defuse the situation,” the pilots said in a statement
A strike would be the biggest threat to sustain the best growth of the June quarter, with the carrier saying the disruption could cost 40 million pounds a day. The pilots union put the cost of settling the strike at 5 million pounds, “one eighth of the cost of just one day’s strike action,” the statement said.
BALPA called for the action after mediated talks with management at the state-backed Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service ended without a deal. Cockpit crews voted to strike by a 93% majority in a poll in July last.
Followed by these ongoing strike,Pilots are threatening to go on strike for one more day on September 27 and then maybe again closer to the winter holidays, should the dispute rage on.
