Indications show that European mega carier, Brtish Airways may cancells all its flights from today.
According to reports, faced with the prospect of a widespread pilot strike, British Airways has directed that passengers should not turn up at the airport because there wont not be flights.
“After many months of trying to resolve the pay dispute, we are extremely sorry that it has come to this,” the airline announced yesterday, blaming a lack of progress in its talks with the British Airline Pilots Association.
“Unfortunately, with no detail from BALPA on which pilots would strike, we had no way of predicting how many would come to work or which aircraft they are qualified to fly,” British Airways added in its statement, “so we had no option but to cancel nearly 100 percent [of] our flights.”
The announcement comes amid the launch of a 48-hour walkout planned by the union, which is pushing for better benefits for pilots and what they say is a fairer share of the company’s revenue. The airline says it has made pilots in the union “a generous offer of a 11.5 per cent pay increase over three years.”
But pilots, according to the union, “remain very angry with BA.” They say the company has increased its profits — more than $3 billion annually, according to parent company International Airlines Group — on the backs of its pilots, with pay cuts and long hours.
