British Airways cancels all flights over pilot strike

LONDON

British Airways (BA) on Monday grounded all of its flights after its pilots began their first-ever two-day strike, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and travel disruption for many.

The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA), the union that represents the pilots, said that they will strike for 48 hours over a long-running salary dispute and plan further strikes towards the end of the month if the issue is not resolved.

“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 union said in a statement.

“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,” the statement added.

British Airways told passengers that if they had a flight booked on Monday or Tuesday they will not be able to board those flight and travel abroad as planned. Customers have been offered refunds or to re-book another date that doesn’t coincide with the strike.

“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 airline said on its website.

The airline has offered an 11.5% pay raise over three years and would increase some pilot’s salaries, including captains, to more than $240,000 a year. The airline has called the offer “fair and generous” and said that if other employees of BA have accepted it then the pilots should do the same.

The airline and the pilots’ union have said they are willing to begin a new round of negotiations.

In an internal BALPA union vote, 93% of BA’s 4,000 pilots voted in favor of taking industrial action after rejecting a deal with the airline.

The airline has faced other disruptions in the past as in 2017 when a computer systems failure left 75,000 passengers stranded at Gatwick and Heathrow.