British Airways cabin crews strike for 2nd day

LONDON: British Airways cabin crews walked off the job for a second day Sunday, upsetting travel plans for scores of customers, but the airline said its contingency plans were working well and more planes were taking off than expected.

The airline — locked in a bitter dispute with workers over a pay freeze and changing working conditions — said it was able to add several extra flights because many crew members ignored the three-day strike call.

"Our contingency plans are continuing to work well on Sunday morning around the world," it said in a statement.

BA said all long-haul aircraft from overseas airports were able to arrive in London as planned on Sunday morning. The airline added there has been no evidence of strikes at any overseas airports directed at its flights.

Union leaders, however, dispute those claims. Unite, the union representing BA cabin crew, said scores of BA planes were grounded and that 10,000 members walked out on Saturday.

BA was able to avoid extended chaos because it leased planes and crew from rival carriers to take up some of the shortfall. About 1,100 flights out of the 1,950 BA flights scheduled to operate during the three-day walkout were expected to be canceled.

The airline had said at the start of the strike that it could handle as many as 49,000 passengers a day on both Saturday and Sunday — compared to the average 75,000 for a normal weekend day in March.

The airline on Sunday declined to provide details of whether that goal was achieved or discuss the number of flights canceled or delayed, but it said that it managed to reinstate more than a dozen of the canceled flights — including those to Paris, Miami and Los Angeles.

The acrimonious dispute with its workers will be financially crippling for BA. Analysts estimated it could cost the airline more than the 63 million pounds ($95 million) that Chief Executive Willie Walsh is trying to save through the changes to workers' pay and conditions.

BA argues that the disputed changes — including a pay freeze in 2010, a switch to part-time work for 3,000 staff and a reduction in cabin crew sizes from 15 to 14 on long-haul flights from Heathrow airport in London — are critical for its survival. The union argues it was not properly consulted on the changes.

Unite planned a second, four-day walkout due to begin March 27 and had said more strikes will be scheduled after April 14 if the dispute is not resolved. The union has pledged not to walk out over the busy Easter period.