And so it comes to pass with another British Airways strike on the way with Mixed fleet crew represented by Unite – and are due to walk out Saturday Morning.
The strike is due to run from 1st July 00:01 (Saturday) through to 16th July 23:59 (Sunday).
British Airways A320 at Heathrow. Expect to see more of these on the ground as the strike goes ahead – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
So far British Airways and Unite (who represent the Mixed Fleet Crew), have been at it a lot – with 26 days of strikes so far this year.
British Airways state:
We recognise the uncertainty that Mixed Fleet Unite’s threat is causing and would like to reassure customers that the vast majority of our services will be unaffected.
We can already confirm the following details:
All flights to and from London Gatwick, London City and Stansted will operate as normal as will our recently launched weekend only Mediterranean services to and from Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester.
The vast majority of flights to and from London Heathrow will operate as normal.
If you currently have a booking, please ensure that your email and phone details are up to date by using Manage My Booking on our website so that we can continue providing you with updates on your flight.
However, British Airways has sneaked a few plans in according to Flyertalk and the CAA, who might be enlisting Qatar Airways by wet-leasing nine Qatar Airways A320 aircraft.
Qatar Airways Airbus A321 at Doha Airport… and maybe in London soon? – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
Wet leasing would indicate that British Airways would hire the plane, pilots and cabin crews.
In the past, British Airways has pulled resources from other airlines (such as Titan, Ryanair, JetAir and so on) to provide extra capacity to run routes. Pulling nine planes and crews from Qatar Airways may seem to be the logical thing to do from an ownership perspective (with IAG 20% owned by Qatar Airways), but it could really annoy the workers of British Airways who are striking (and BA using them as strike breakers), and it may make the rest of the British Airways crews look over their shoulders a bit more often.
None the less, with this strike due to hit, it could be worth checking your reservations for changes, and pro-actively requesting changes to your schedules if you need to make them.
Also, British Airways customers will have a shock when they fly the Qatar Airways short-haul birds, with proper IFE, regional business class seats (as opposed to EuroBusiness).
Almost enough to make you want Qatar Airways to stay long-term… or for British Airways to fit proper business class seats.
And that’s as likely to happen as me getting BA Gold Guest List this year.
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