BAA traffic falls in May

Passenger numbers at BAA airports fell in May following the ash cloud debacle and the British Airways strikes, the airport operator has announced.

The company saw a 4.5% dip in passengers last month compared to the same period last year when pre-ash cloud and industrial action it had been expecting a 0.4% increase.

BA has calculated that the number of passengers it flew last month fell by 14.2% compared to last May.

Meanwhile, BA management waits to see whether union Unite will hold a new strike ballot for industrial action in July or August.

TV reports today have featured anonymous cabin crew going on record to say that they believe 80%-90% of strikers now want to return to work as money worried harden.

The crew also said no-one expected the strikes to go on as long as they have. Unite has so far paid out £1.25 in strike pay.

Unite national officer for aviation Brian Boyd said today that BA management was taking a “vindictive approach” to the dispute and that the strikes were necessary to make sure BA was restored to being a decent place to work.

When confronted with BA’s impressive take-off figures during the action, he said a lot of it was “smoke and mirrors” and the numbers of planes getting away included code share airlines.

“At least 100 planes have been cancelled every day,” he said. “The flights that Walsh is including in his figures includes ones operated by BMI.”

By Dinah Hatch