Fresh BA crew strike to go ahead on Saturday

British Airways cabin crew's latest strike will go ahead on Saturday and there are no talks planned between the airline and unions to avert the five-day stoppage, the Unite union said.


"There are no talks planned and the strike goes ahead tomorrow (Saturday)," a Unite spokeswoman said on Friday.

BA said it was "still available for talks" and that conciliation service ACAS was "talking to both parties to try and arrange talks."

The strikes stem from BA's decision last November to cut cabin crew pay and alter staffing levels to save 62.5 million pounds ($91.5 million) a year to counter falling demand, volatile fuel prices and greater competition.

The latest strike comes less than a week before the start of the soccer World Cup in South Africa and follows a five-day strike which ended on Thursday. This follows on from a four-day walkout last week and seven days of stoppages in March.

BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh and leaders of labour union Unite, which represents cabin crew, blame each other for a breakdown in communication.

Six months' worth of talks have failed to yield a resolution, with the walkouts having caused BA to ground flights on 17 occasions so far.

The issue of travel allowances for cabin crew has become a major sticking point in the conflict, which comes at a difficult time for BA. Last month, the airline announced a full-year loss of 531 million pounds.

BA, Europe's third-largest airline, which is losing around 7 million pounds a day from the strike, said the total cost of the stoppages could only be assessed at the end of the disruption and would reflect lost bookings offset by some volume driven cost savings.

BA carried 11.5 percent fewer passenger in May year-on-year because of the strikes, leaving it lagging rivals such as Air France-KLM, Ryanair and easyJet whose passenger numbers are rising.

BA shares, which have risen 10 per cent this year, were up 1.7 per cent at 209.2 pence by 0950 GMT, valuing the airline at around 2.3 billion pounds.