Willie Walsh urges BA pilots to accept pay deal
International Airlines Group boss Willie Walsh has called on British Airways pilots to end their pay dispute, but promised to do ‘everything we can’ for customers if strikes go ahead.
He was speaking as IAG reported a second-quarter operating profit of €960 million before exceptional items.
The pilot union BALPA and BA are holding talks at the conciliation service ACAS to try to resolve the dispute.
Talks continued on Friday and both parties have agreed to continue meeting next week.
BALPA issued a statement on Friday evening saying: "BALPA and British Airways have been in talks at ACAS (The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) since Wednesday afternoon in order to try and resolve the dispute between BA and its pilots. Those talks continued on Thursday and Friday.
"Both sides have agreed to resume talks next week.
"In the meantime BALPA will not announce any industrial action dates at this time.
"BALPA is still committed to finding a negotiated solution to this dispute."
Earlier this week, BA failed in its a bid to mount a legal challenge to the strike ballot.
BALPA has to give 14 days’ notice of any strikes if the talks fall through.
Walsh told Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday morning that the pay offer is a ‘fair deal’.
He added: "Nobody wants uncertainty that strike action delivers. BA met all day with them and we will meet all day today. BALPA has not yet set a date."
He told Sky News the airline would do ‘everything we can’ to help customers if the strikes do go ahead.
Walsh added BA has not seen any downturn in post-Brexit bookings.
He told Today: "People are booking flights for November 1. Demand for aviation is looking good at the moment. We are not seeing any impact in our bookings. That could be because we tend to be a bit more London centric."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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