LONDON: British Airways pilots began a two-day strike at midnight over pay and conditions. The strike will affect hundreds of thousands of passengers and shows no sign of being resolved.
Roughly 50 flights, mostly coming into the UK, were grounded ahead of the walk-out, with all but a few flights canceled on Monday and Tuesday as passengers were told to stay away from airports.
The cancellation of up to 1,7000 flights is expected to affect 280,000 customers with extra disruption outside the official strike days expected to affect thousands more.
The row with pilots has been described by the Financial Times as “the gravest industrial action in the airline’s history” and by The Times as “the most acrimonious pay disputes that BA has ever seen”.
Despite earning on average about £90,000, rising to £167,000 for captains, BA pilots have previously rejected a pay increase worth 11.5% over three years, which was proposed by the airline in July. The pilots’ union Balpa argues its members have taken lower pay rises and made sacrifices to help British Airways overcome its financial difficulties and want a reward after the company made a pre-tax profit of £2 billion in 2018.
(Agencies)
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