BA cancels ‘small number of services’ during strike days

British Airways claims it will operate 99% of its total scheduled programme during a three-day strike by its mixed fleet cabin crew, due to start at 0.01am on Thursday.

The airline said it had cancelled a small number of short-haul services from Heathrow, but it said all other flights would go ahead as planned.

In a statement on its website, BA said: "As part of our contingency plan, we will be merging a very small number of short-haul flights to and from Heathrow.

"This will result in the cancellation of only one per cent of our total scheduled flights across the three days.

"This will mean some customers will travel slightly earlier or later in the day than their original booking.

"Customers affected are being contacted with the options available for them."

BA said it had further strengthened its schedules from the two-day walk-out by up to 2,900 cabin crew last week, which their trade union Unite claimed had resulted in ‘scores of cancellations’.

When it announced details of the further strike action last week, Unite said: "We would urge British Airways to avoid the inconvenience and disruption of industrial action by meaningfully addressing levels of poverty pay which are causing financial worry and distress to ‘mixed fleet’ cabin crew."