British Airways is facing the threat of new disruption this summer after the Unite union unveiled plans to ballot check-in staff over strike action at London’s Heathrow airport.
The union on Monday said it would ballot 500 staff at the UK’s busiest airport in a dispute over pay — a vote in favour would pave the way for action in July to cause maximum disruption during the summer peak.
Unite said BA management had refused to reverse a 10 per cent pay cut imposed during the pandemic, and that its members were “rightly furious and ready to take action”.
“A strike by our members will make an immediate impact on the service to customers, so I urge BA to get a grip and restore these workers’ pay immediately,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.
BA said an offer of a 10 per cent pay rise for this year had been rejected by staff, and that the union’s plans were “extremely disappointing”.
The 500 staff being balloted represents about half of the Heathrow customer services team. The ballot will run from June 7 to 27.
A strike would be a significant new headache for the travel industry, which for weeks has been plagued by a barrage of cancellations and delays as airlines have struggled to find enough staff to cater for a surge in demand for flying following the end of most pandemic travel restrictions.
BA has been forced to cancel 10 per cent of its flight schedules between March and October, and its chief executive Sean Doyle this month overhauled the airline’s senior management.
EasyJet customers have also suffered significant delays and cancellations over the past few days.
On Thursday an IT failure resulted in about 200 cancelled flights without notice, and the airline has also proactively cancelled 24 flights a day between May 28 and June 6 to try to avoid last-minute cancellations.
Despite this, passengers complained of shambolic scenes at London’s Gatwick airport over the weekend as some flights were cancelled or delayed with no notice.
EasyJet said that a variety of factors including air traffic control delays had led to crew shortages as some staff were clocked off duty because they had gone over their legally permitted operating hours.
The airline said it was no longer suffering from crew shortages, but has stripped out some of the seats from its planes to allow them to operate with fewer crew, and leased charter aircraft to help meet the current demand for flying.
Consumer group Which? has called on the UK’s aviation regulator to be given new powers to fine airlines who disregard consumer rights over cancellations and refunds.
Elsewhere, German charter airline Tui and Dublin Airport were among the other aviation companies to apologise to customers for disruption over the past few days, as operational issues have spread across parts of the European industry.