BA cancels Dubai flights as cabin crew strike again

The four-day strike by British Airways' (BA) cabin crew, which kicked off yesterday, has resulted in the cancellation of four Dubai flights, along with all flights on the London-Bahrain sector.

The airline's Abu Dhabi operations, however, are operating normally.

Following yesterday's cancellation of BA0105 London-Dubai, scheduled for arrival at 20.40pm, the airline has also stopped the corresponding flights during the strike period, which ends on March 30: BA0107 London-Dubai, arrival at 12.50pm today; BA0107 London-Dubai, arrival at 12.50pm tomorrow; BA0106 Dubai-London, departure at 1.45am, today.

Still flying high

BA has pledged that more than three-quarters of its passengers – or more than 180,000 out of 240,000 – will still be able to travel as planned during the walkout, which follows a similar three-day action last week.

A further 18 per cent of customers have been rebooked with other airlines, or have switched their travel dates to avoid the strike period, the airline said in a statement. The airline is hoping to fly a full schedule from London's City and Gatwick airports during the strikes and at Heathrow will operate 70 per cent of long-haul and 55 per cent of short-haul flights.

BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh, who insists the company could fold in a decade unless the changes he wants take place, said the "vast majority" of staff were "pulling together to serve our customers and keep our flag flying". "At the same time, I feel really sorry for those customers whose plans have been ruined by the Unite union's completely unjustified action," he added.

Cost of the strike

Amid growing hostility between BA and trade union Unite, whose members are staging seven days of strikes, the union claimed the cost to BA would be £100 million (Dh547.36m).

By contrast, BA said that a three-day walkout from last Saturday would cost £7m a day and that an assessment of the full cost of the seven-day action could only be made after it was finished.

Talks between the two sides broke down eight days ago, on the eve of the first wave of strikes.

Unite, which represents BA's 12,000 cabin crew, is also upset that the airline has axed highly-prized perks such as big travel discounts for all striking workers. BA, which is attempting to merge with Spanish rival Iberia, said last month it expected to notch up a record loss in the current financial year due to weak demand for air travel. (With AFP inputs)