BA cancels ‘nearly 100% of flights’ after pilot strike

The first-ever strike by British Airways pilots started at midnight yesterday, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and travel disruption for thousands of passengers.Members of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) have said they will also walk out on September 27 if the row remains unresolved.Yesterday morning BA said on its website that it had “no option but to cancel nearly 100% (of) our flights”.“We understand the frustration and disruption Balpa’s strike action has caused you. After many months of trying to resolve the pay dispute, we are extremely sorry that it has come to this,” the company’s website said.Both BA and Balpa have indicated that they are willing to start new talks. Despite the slight thaw in previously tetchy relations, the vast majority of BA’s flights taking off from the UK today have already been cancelled.BA has told passengers that if they have a flight booked today, it is likely they will not be able to travel as planned.BA operates more than 800 flights a day, with most expected to be cancelled, affecting up to 145,000 passengers a day.Customers have been offered refunds or the option to re-book to another date of travel or alternative airline. It is expected that the problems will continue after the strike, because planes and pilots will need to be in position for subsequent journeys.Balpa’s general secretary, Brian Strutton, said: “British Airways needs to wake up and realise its pilots are determined to be heard. They’ve previously taken big pay cuts to help the company through hard times. Now BA is making billions of pounds of profit, its pilots have made a fair, reasonable and affordable claim for pay and benefits.“The company’s leaders, who themselves are paid huge salaries and have generous benefits packages, won’t listen, are refusing to negotiate and are putting profits before the needs of passengers and staff. It is time to get back to the negotiating table and put together a serious offer that will end this dispute,” he said.BA has offered an 11.5% pay rise over three years, which it said would take the pay of some captains to more than £200,000 a year.The airline said it believed the pay offer was “fair and generous”, and that it if it was good enough for BA cabin crew, ground staff and engineers – whose unions, Unite and the GMB, have both accepted it – it should be good enough for pilots.A Balpa statement said: “Fundamentally, BA pilots have lost trust and confidence in their management through relentless cost and corner-cutting.” One pilot told the Guardian on Friday: “It’s not really about money, it’s about respect. We’ve effectively been lied to. We’ve given up a serious pension scheme, pay and pay rises when the company was weak – all on the promise that when the company was strong and giving up proper returns to its investors, we would benefit.”