British Airways News and Updates in British Airways

Cabin crew strike ballot - a message from CEO, Willie Walsh.

I wanted to update you on what we propose to do in the event that a strike does go ahead.

Unite, the union that represents our BA cabin crew, has not as yet announced any strike dates.

It must tell us by 15 March whether a strike will happen and it cannot go on strike without first giving us seven days notice of the first day.

In the meantime we continue to have talks with Unite and we want to resolve the issues between us.

I want to reassure you that a strike will not ground British Airways. We have had nearly 6,000 volunteers in total to support our flying programme, including nearly 1,000 who have trained as cabin crew and the number is growing.

We have been putting plans into place and although we cannot announce the precise schedule we will operate until we know for sure what Unite would do, I can tell you what our plans are.

We will operate all our flights from London City airport, including long-haul services to New York.

We will operate all our long-haul schedule at London Gatwick, and about half of our short-haul schedule.

At London Heathrow, we will operate a substantial proportion of our long-haul programme and a good number of short-haul flights too, assisted by chartered aircraft with crews from a number of UK and European-based airlines. We have at least 23 aircraft available to us over an extended period.

All BA CityFlyer, codeshare and franchise flights will continue to operate as normal.

We have also arranged to secure seats from other carriers, so thousands more of you can reach your chosen destinations.

At this stage our plans do not include crew at London Heathrow who may choose to work normally. More than 4,000 of all crew did not vote for strike action.

I would like to thank you for standing by us in recent weeks. Despite all the uncertainty Unite has created since it announced its ballot in January, passenger numbers for February were actually higher than a year ago - and our premium traffic rose for the first time in 18 months.

We want to help you as much as we possibly can.

If strike dates are announced:
You will be able to rebook, free of charge and subject to availability, onto other British Airways flights outside of the strike period for up to 355 days from the original date of travel. Refunds will only be available if flights are actually cancelled or if the original booking conditions allow.

In the event that cancellations are made due to strike action. You will be able to:

• Rebook onto another British Airways flight to the same destination within 355 days of the original date of travel  
• Rebook onto another British Airways flight to/from the nearest alternative airport  (for example, if booked to/from Boston you could rebook to/from Philadelphia or New York)  
• Cancel your booking and get a refund.  
• All rebooking options will be subject to availability.

More detailed information about rebooking options, including specific dates covered by these guidelines will be made available if a strike is announced.  

Normal Conditions of Carriage will apply for any flights that are cancelled outside of the strike period.

British Airways Executive Club members will continue to earn Tier Points and BA Miles for flights cancelled due to any strike action.

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We will keep you informed of any further progress on the British Airways pending strike action.
Call us on 020 7386 4646 if you have any concerns regarding this matter.