British Airways resumed hundreds of flights at one of the world’s busiest airports, while pleading for continued patience from thousands of passengers stranded by a ground-crew walkout.
The airline said 420 out of its 500 scheduled flights were taking off on Saturday from London’s Heathrow airport — 85% of its short-haul flights and 80% of its long-haul flights. But with tens of thousands of passengers still grounded by the daylong strike, which ended on Friday, the airline said service would not reach normal levels for several more days.
The strike was triggered by a dispute between catering staff and the US-owned firm Gate Gourmet, which provides onboard meals for British Airways flights.
”Like all the people here I am not pleased, but I am accepting the situation,” said Latific Vanja, who was stranded in London with his wife and two young children after flying in on Friday from Los Angeles.
”There’s been a lot of confusion, but I am happier now that I know I will be going home tomorrow [Thursday],” said Vanja, who was told his flight home to Oslo, Norway, would leave on Sunday.
Huge tents were erected outside the terminals where passengers were given free coffee and tea, and newspapers to read. Chicken sandwiches, apples and carrot sticks were also provided, and entertainers were brought in to amuse the waiting children.
”Our priority is still to get passengers as quickly as possible to their destination,” said BA spokesperson Pam Simpson. ”But absolutely we are still asking for patience, and customers are being very understanding.”
Talks continued to resolve the catering dispute that triggered the chaos. Though all of the 1 000 striking workers returned to their jobs on Friday afternoon, the airline had to get 100 aircraft and 1 000 flight crew stranded by the industrial action back to where they belonged, said spokesperson Becky Thornton.
”It will take several days to get some stability to our schedule,” she said.
The sheer number of stranded passengers — 70 000 on Friday, and 40 000 on Thursday — was adding to the trouble. BA pleaded with travellers not to turn up on Saturday at Heathrow unless they had confirmed flight reservations. The airline was also scrambling to return 30 000 pieces of stranded luggage to passengers.
Australian Glen Perryman (25) decided to use the delay to drop into a pub in London to watch England play Australia in cricket.
But Perryman, whose wife in Sydney is expecting their first child any day now, was anxious to get home.
”I don’t know what’s happening,” he said. ”I haven’t heard from her today so I could be a dad already. I just want to get out of here and get back home.”
Others were less forgiving of the striking workers.
”Why can these people disrupt public services in this way? They’re a pain,” said Peter Mohr (42) a geologist attempting to fly to Oman.
The catering company’s workers’ union said 800 staff had been fired on Wednesday after an unofficial strike. The company said 667 workers had been dismissed.
BA baggage handlers and loaders represented by the same union as catering staff — the Transport and General Workers’ Union — stopped work in sympathy with their colleagues.
Gate Gourmet, which is undertaking restructuring amid financial losses, said it was trying to resolve the dispute. Gate Gourmet is owned by the US company Texas Pacific Group.
As the talks continued, flights operating on Saturday had only limited catering, and passengers were being given food parcels to take onboard and food vouchers to buy snacks before boarding.
This is the third consecutive year that BA has suffered a disruption at the height of the summer holiday season. Analysts warned the airline faced losses of up to £40-million ($73-million, â,¬58-million) from the latest dispute. – Sapa-AP