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TURMOIL AT HEATHROW: BA Resumes Flights but Thousands of Tourists Still Face Delays

Posted on: Saturday, 13 August 2005, 06:00 CDT

British Airways resumed flights from Heathrow last night as peace talks began to resolve the catering-company dispute which has disrupted the travel plans of more than 100,000 people.

But thousands of would-be travellers spent another miserable day of frustration and boredom at Heathrow as the airline pleaded with staff to return to work.

By 5pm, as news of the talks spread, workers returned to their posts and a few hours later the first passengers were being checked onto flights. Disruption was expected to continue, despite BA's announcement that it was resuming a limited number of flights, including 32 last night. The first two BA flights to Paris and Glasgow left their stands shortly after 8.30pm. But in a letter to passengers who were checking-in, BA warned that no in-flight meals would be provided and advised them to eat beofre boarding.

The breakthrough followed an agreement by managers from Gate Gourmet, the company that supplied the airline with its in-flight meals, to meet officials from the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G). BA said 1,000 staff who had walked out were returning to work. The wildcat strike had forced BA to suspend all flights from Heathrow from 3pm on Thursday, leaving 70,000 stranded around the world and thousands to spend the night at the airport.

BA staff had walked out in sympathy with hundreds of catering workers who had been sacked the previous afternoon by Gate Gourmet. The two sides met at a hotel near Heathrow under the chairmanship of the conciliation service Acas.

Brendan Gold, the union's national officer, said the T&G was determined to try to win back the jobs of those who had been dismissed, saying most of them were left 'angry and upset', facing an uncertain future.

Signs of progress between Gourmet and the 650 workers who were sacked after unofficial strike action had been scant until late in the day, when the T&G joined the airline in ordering its BA members back to work.

The airline paid for 4,000 passengers to stay in hotels on Thursday night while hundreds of others slept in the terminals, hoping services would return to normal. About 100 aircraft and 1,000 cabin crew were out of position so it is unclear when all flights can resume.

For the passengers, it was another day of misery. As increasingly gloomy rumours swept through the large white tent, small huddles of passengers gathered around BA staff begging for optimistic information. All complained they were being kept in the dark by staff who often appeared confused. Eventually, those still waiting for cancelled flights were told to leave the airport and re-book or arrange a refund through a dedicated helpline. The airline said it would contribute pounds 100 towards hotel accommodation for those forced to spend another night away from home.

Many, who had already endured 24 hours of frustration, waited for their number to be called just so they could join another queue to try to re- book.

Most stared into the distance in a silence which was only broken by cheers from someone whose number had been called or by the singing from a Mexican band heading home from a Turkish music festival. A jazz band also tried valiantly to lighten the atmosphere.

A young girl cried as a first-aider tried to soothe her earache. A woman handing out coffees tried in vain to start a cheerful conversation. Ironically, in a dispute which began over catering, piles of free sandwiches and drinks appeared. Some customers seemed to be hoarding sustenance, preparing for a long wait.

Inside the departure lounges, customers perched on the end of trolleys or stretched out asleep on the ground, wrapped in BA blankets. A student, Zoritza Dimitrova, 21, had been trying to get back to South Africa since Thursday. 'We think we will be here all week now. We spent all our money yesterday. We only have pounds 12 left. We don't have any money for a hotel so I guess we will have to sleep in the terminal tonight.'

Sally and Peter Leprevost and their two teenage children were still waiting to start a holiday in the Bahamas. She said: 'We went to a travel agent but they said we would have to pay another pounds 4,000. It is only BA which goes there so we have no option but to wait.'

Talks between Gate Gourmet and the T&G were expected to go on through last night in an attempt to break the impasse. The company has been experiencing severe financial difficulties for many years, and the management has been trying to change working practices which the company says are outdated and inefficient. It is on course to make a loss of pounds 25m this year and said it is in danger of collapse unless workers accept changes to their pay and conditions.

A T&G spokesman said: 'Talks have begun, but it will be a slow process. There is no easy solution when a company is in a financial crisis but we need to address the needs of both the workforce and the company.'

Airline analysts have estimated that the action could cost BA as much as pounds 40m in lost sales and compensation to passengers.

Earlier, hundreds of the workers sacked by Gourmet met in a community centre in Southall, west London, to hear from unions if there was any possibility of returning to work. Gourmet, owned by a US investment company, Texas Pacific, has refused to take back any workers and drafted in hundreds of temporary staff.

LEADING ARTICLE, PAGE 30

Source: Independent, The; London (UK)

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