BA cancels all Heathrow flights due to dispute

By Gavin Haycock

LONDON (Reuters) – British Airways canceled all its flights
from London’s Heathrow Airport on Thursday at the peak of its
summer holiday season, stranding some 20,000 passengers,
following a series of wildcat strikes.

Suitcase-laden travelers crowded the entrances to the
world’s busiest airport after baggage handlers, loaders and bus
drivers walked out in sympathy with workers at Heathrow
caterer, Gate Gourmet, which is caught up in a row with
management.

At least 77 short-haul flights and the corresponding return
journeys and 44 long-haul outbound flights were canceled, a BA
spokesman said.

“All of our flights have been canceled,” the spokesman
said, adding the situation on Friday was “under review.”

Around 100,000 passengers fly daily with the airline during
August.

Some 14 aircraft due to land at Heathrow on Thursday
afternoon were diverted to other British airports, the
spokesman said.

The disruption at Heathrow intensified after BA suspended
check-ins for its passengers at terminals one and four as a
result of the dispute at Gate Gourmet.

“We’ve planned this holiday for 18 months and we’re going
to a wedding. We’ve saved long and hard for it. I’m gutted,”
said Ian Thompson, 51, who was trying to catch a flight to Los
Angeles.

Hundreds of flights by British Airways, Europe’s
third-largest airline, left London earlier in the day without
meals on board for passengers.

The spokesman said earlier that around 1,000 BA baggage
handlers stopped work during the dispute.

FOOD BAGS

The airline was struggling to put up passengers who had
already checked in for their flights in hotels around Heathrow
and advising others to return on Friday.

BA said it was contacting passengers to warn them about the
situation before their flights.

Passengers caught up in the disruption over airline meals
earlier in the day, before the cancellations, were provided
with food bags or vouchers at the airport before boarding
flights.

The dispute intensified Wednesday when Gate Gourmet sacked
around 350 workers who went on strike over the company’s
decision to hire seasonal workers, unions said.

A Transport & General Workers Union spokeswoman said the
union was seeking further talks with Gate Gourmet and wanted to
see the workers reinstated.

A Gate Gourmet spokesman was not available for comment

However in a statement issued on Wednesday, the company
said the strike action, following more than 30 meetings between
management and the union, had put the jobs of 2,000 of its
workers at Heathrow under threat.

“These actions not only jeopardise the livelihoods of our
entire workforce at Heathrow but also the services of major
airlines and their customers,” Managing Director Eric Born said
in a statement.

He added: “If we don’t change, the company will not survive
and there will be no future. We now have to take control of
this situation swiftly, which may lead to restructuring to
avoid the total collapse of the company.”

BA shares closed down 1.3 percent at 292-1/4 pence.

(Additional reporting by Michael Smith)