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Strike-hit British Airways says more flights operated
May 31, 2010

British Airways has said it operated more flights than planned as cabin crew began a second five-day strike.

The airline said it had reintroduced all flights from Heathrow to New York's JFK airport and would add more.

It insisted its operations went "very well" during last week's action and that it had made another "good start".

The Unite union claimed BA cancelled more than 100 flights on Sunday and said its strikes continued to be strongly supported.

Unite has said it would suspend industrial action if BA restored travel perks it took from those cabin crew who went on strike in March.

The latest walkout coincides with the half-term holidays, and could be followed by more action starting on 5 June.

A BA spokesperson said: "Our global operations went very well throughout the first week of Unite's strike action and got off to another good start today.

We have announced a larger schedule at Heathrow for this round of strikes, because of the numbers of crew reporting for work.

"We will continue to operate 100% of our schedule at Gatwick and London City airports. "At Heathrow, we will operate to more than 70% of longhaul flights (up from more than 60% last week) and more than 55% of shorthaul flights (up from more than 50% last week)."

Negotiations ended without agreement on Friday, with Unite blaming BA's chief executive Willie Walsh for the deadlock.

Conciliation service Acas will be contacting both sides to arrange further talks. BA says the strike has cost it about £85m - an average of £6m for each of the 15 strike days so far.

Source :- http://news.bbc.co.uk