British Airways will be able to operate 100% of its long-haul flights from London should Unite strike again in the next few months, according to chief executive Willie Walsh.
He said the airline was absolutely confident that long-haul services would be unaffected but said he couldn’t yet say how much of the short-haul programme would run out of the London airports.
The last time Unite members walked out in May, BA was forced to ground about 40% of its short-haul flights.
However, Walsh told the audience at Malta’s ABTA convention today that he thought it was unlikely that Unite would repeat last year’s attempted walk-out over Christmas.
He said: “There is a whole process that Unite has to go through including conducting a ballot, having a mandate for industrial action and serving us with notice. That takes a while.”
Before leaving the ABTA stage, Walsh was asked how much he thought that, a year after the start of BA’s dispute with Unite began, the fault lay with the union to which he replied: “entirely”.
By Dinah Hatch
