British Airways passengers have learnt that their flights have been cancelled following the unprecedented 16-day strike by some cabin crew.
BA’s Mixed Fleet crew will start their strike from Saturday 1 July to Sunday 16 July, the latest strike in a long-running pay dispute. The crew members make up about 35 per cent of the airline’s cabin workers, and staff who operate more than 60 routes from Heathrow.
The airline has cancelled several long-haul departures to and from Heathrow, although it expects most flights to operate as normal, including short-haul flights.
According to The Independent, 12 flights on the Heathrow-Doha route have been cancelled in the first six days of the strike. BA passengers will instead fly Qatar Airways, which owns 40 per cent of BA’s parent company, IAG.
Three out of the first five daily trips to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja have also been cancelled and so have Saturday’s Heathrow-Muscat departure and the return on Sunday.
Long-haul mixed fleet routes which are serviced by Mixed Fleet may not be affected by the strike. These include Bangkok, Beijing, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, Singapore and Sydney.
BA will offer a full refund for passengers booked on cancelled flights. They will also have the option of switching to alternative nearby destinations or to re-book an alternative departure on the same route.
A British Airways spokesperson said: "We will merge a very small number of Heathrow services, and all affected customers are being contacted in advance and will be rebooked to alternative flights if they wish."
BA has sought approval from the Civil Aviation Authority to have nine fully crewed aircraft brought in from Qatar Airways to counter the effects of the cabin crew strike. The Doha-based airline has excess capacity, seeing as flights to the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been grounded in the ongoing geo-political row.
The Mixed Fleet strike stems from a pay dispute in which the cabin workers have complained of poor pay compared to longer-serving staff. They have previously staged a 26 days walkout which disrupted BA services in various airports.
