Open Jaw: 'Walsh wants to crush the unions'

Mr Calder, do you work for BA management? I suggest you stick to travel writing. Your anti-worker and anti-union bias is disgraceful and offensive. I'd love to know how much you are paid and what car you drive, you idiot. For your information Willie Walsh [BA chief executive] helped ruin Aer Lingus and now tries the same capitalist boot-boy t...- 27/03/2010, News & Advice

Fresh row as BA prepares for more strike action

A fresh row between British Airways and the union representing its cabin crew flared tonight as the airline prepared for another strike in a bitter row over jobs and cost-cutting. The company said it would fly more than 75% of customers booked to travel during the four days of strike action which begin tomorrow, adding that it expected to handl...- 26/03/2010, News & Advice

Misery for travellers as 'budget' fares spiral

Air tickets have spiralled in price as a result of the BA dispute, leaving passengers facing the prospect of paying hundreds of pounds more for trips.- 23/03/2010, News & Advice

Warning over cancelled flights after strike ends

British Airways tonight warned passengers that flights could be cancelled even after the first three-day cabin crew strike ends. "There may be a knock-on effect after the strike and we have published details on our website of what passengers can do if their flight is cancelled," a BA spokeswoman said. The warning means that BA passen...- 19/03/2010, News & Advice

BA spelling out what happens to affected customers

British Airways has gone to great lengths to shield its passengers from the worst effects of the cabin crew strikes. But inevitably there will be many thousands of passengers who will not be able to travel with the airline over the next few days. BA has been urging people to check its official website, where information can be found as to just...- 19/03/2010, Home News

BA plans to fly 65% of passengers during strike

British Airways staff are confident they will be able to handle as many as 49,000 passengers on each of the first two planned strike days - tomorrow and Sunday. This compares with a figure of around 75,000 for a normal weekend day in March, with some passengers due to travel with other carriers on specially-chartered planes. This weekend, BA...- 19/03/2010, News & Advice

Simon Calder: BA will never prosper while it's tangled in prehistoric practices

From the world's favourite airline to the UK's third-favourite carrier: that is the ignominy this morning facing British Airways. New figures from the Civil Aviation Authority show that BA's arch-rivals easyJet and Ryanair each fly more passengers through UK airports than does BA. Last year the two no-frills carriers were neck-and-neck at 28.1m, while Bri- 16/03/2010, Simon Calder

Strikes cause travel headache for BA passengers

Passengers booked to fly with British Airways on this month's strike days will have to go through the small print of their insurance policies and navigate around the BA website to find out just what effect the dispute will have on their travel plans. BA has said not all its flights will be cancelled but it has temporarily stopped selling seat...- 12/03/2010, News & Advice

Little hope of breakthrough at BA strike talks

Talks aimed at averting a strike by British Airways cabin crew continued today, with hopes of a deal balanced on a knife edge. A deadline to reach an agreement was extended yesterday in a bid to break a deadlocked row over jobs, pay and working practices. Officials from Unite met BA managers at the London headquarters of the TUC for further ta...- 10/03/2010, News & Advice

Kate Simon: Will BA's staff cuts signal a nosedive for in-flight service?

What will it be like to fly with British Airways in the future if the airline succeeds in cutting cabin crew costs at Heathrow? That's the pressing question for those of us on the outside looking in, even if most commentators have been waylaid by the scrap between BA's management and Unite, the crew's trade union. BA says it must take action to stem its los...- 07/03/2010, News & Advice

BA passenger figures up

British Airways, facing a damaging cabin crew strike, announced today that it carried 1.5% more passengers last month than in February 2009. A total of 2.2 million customers flew on BA's services in February 2010 compared to just under 2.17 million in February last year, when London had its worst snow for 19 years. BA's planes flew 74.2% full ...- 03/03/2010, News & Advice

Simon Calder: No laughing matter for BA's cabin crew

"No smirking." Never mind "no smoking" signs: the crew rooms of easyJet, BMI and Virgin Atlantic need notices reminding staff to stifle their chuckles at the way the bosses and cabin crew of British Airways are contriving to send business their way. For the past four months, the squabble over cabin-crew rosters at BA has driven passengers into the depart...- 20/02/2010, News & Advice

Emergency relief flight takes off from Heathrow

An emergency relief flight bound for Haiti has taken off from Heathrow Airport today, a British Airways spokesman said. The Boeing 747 carrying 50 tonnes of supplies left at about 8.30am crewed by a team of 30 volunteer BA pilots, cabin crew, engineers and ground staff. The flight, with 10 tonnes of Oxfam cargo, will stop en route at Billund i...- 16/01/2010, Crime

Fresh talks in bid to avert BA strike

Fresh talks between British Airways and union leaders will be held today in a bid to avert a series of Christmas strikes by thousands of cabin crew. Unite's joint leaders Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson will meet the airline's bosses to try to find a breakthrough in a bitter row over jobs, pay and working conditions. BA said it had offered to me...- 16/12/2009, News & Advice

Leading article: A trade union's flight from sanity

It would appear that turkeys do sometimes vote for Christmas after all. Earlier this week the British Airways cabin crew union held a ballot and chose to mount a 12-day strike over the festive period. BA's management is frantically sorting through thousands of crew and pilot rotas to work out a new schedule and minimise disruption. And yesterday it launch- 16/12/2009, Leading Articles