BA strike update: T5 a ‘ghost town’ as cabin crew strike hits
hard
20th March 2010
With 80 percent of cabin crew standing strong on the first day
of the BA stoppage, Unite has issued an update of how the strike is
biting so far, which reveals that BA's much-vaunted contingencies
plans are failing:
- BA has managed to fly only one third of its normal scheduled
departures;
- BA's flagship terminal T5 is a ghost town as passengers stay
away;
- The first long haul BA flight out (10am) was to Abu Dhabi and
crewed by 6 pilots and 2 international cabin crew;
- From 12.20pm until 2.30pm only 10 flights departed from
Heathrow, normally there would be 50 during the same period; of the
10 which left, 8 flights were chartered and only 2 were BA
flights;
- By lunchtime today, 85 BA planes were parked at Heathrow -
consuming the maximum parking space allowed for BA aircraft;
- 20 more planes had been moved to Cardiff to be parked, and a
further 20 flown to Shannon, in western Ireland, to sit out the
strike;
- By 2pm, only one flight to JFK airport had departed - normally
there are five;
- At Gatwick, one third of flights have failed to take off;
- BA planes are taking off empty, save for cargo, as BA stretches
efforts to make it seem it is functioning;
- On average only 14 passengers are travelling on those flights
which are taking off, far short of capacity;
- 2 strike-breaking chartered flights did not depart because of
technical problems;
- That by mid-morning around 113 BA passengers had complained
about the poor quality of food on-board the flights; and
- That there are reports of no food on in-bound flights from
Germany and Italy.
ENDS
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