Double-whammy for UK travelers – volcanic ash cloud and BA unions

Air travellers are facing a double threat involving the latest ash plume from Iceland’s volcano moving around into UK airspace, as well as a union summit to discuss strikes which could affect hundreds

Air travellers are facing a double threat involving the latest ash plume from Iceland’s volcano moving around into UK airspace, as well as a union summit to discuss strikes which could affect hundreds of thousands of British Airways passengers.

It follows a weekend of disruption, with the ash cloud closing most airports in northern Italy and some in Scotland, northern Spain, southern France, Switzerland and Germany for 12 or 24 hours, and continuing threats to continental and UK airspace. Stornoway and Benbecula airports have reopened, however Barra airport in the Outer Hebrides is closed as it is in the no-fly zone from 7pm today until 1am tomorrow.

The Met Office said that the volcano remains “dynamic”, and wind patterns could swing the ash cloud around into Britain’s southern airspace by the early hours. All airlines operating in north-western Europe are warning intending passengers to check the situation before travelling to the airport.

Although the disruption was far less than the blanket shutdown across much of Europe when Eyjafjallajokull first erupted last month, the plans of hundreds of thousands of business and holiday travellers were still thrown into chaos over the weekend. Portuguese airports were badly affected, with 119 flights cancelled at Porto and 71 at Lisbon. Scores of flights between the UK and the continent were cancelled by Ryanair and EasyJet from airports including Stansted.

Swiss airlines cancelled 16 flights to Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands, and airports were starting to close in Austria last night, with Vienna expected to shut by midnight, and none reopening before 5am today. Ireland’s west coast airports were closed by mid-afternoon, and the flag carrier, Aer Lingus, apologised for the cancellations since last Tuesday.

Transatlantic connections were also diverted to avoid the cloud, adding hours to flights between Europe and North America, and causing runway congestion as flights missed their landing or takeoff slots.

On the industrial front the outlook remains just as cloudy. The joint general secretaries of the Unite trade union, Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, will consider a request by BA shop stewards for weeks of strikes starting as soon as next Monday. But BA is confident that contingency plans used during seven days of strikes in March will again blunt the impact of any industrial action.

Cabin crew rejected BA’s latest attempt to resolve a dispute over staffing cuts last week. It is understood that Woodley and Simpson are sympathetic to a lengthy walkout. One plan, now believed to have been shelved, involved four waves of five-day strikes interspersed with 24-hour gaps. The ultimate decision over the form of industrial action lies with the general secretaries, but the airline could be disrupted until 8 June, including the week of half-term.

A trade union source said: “There are still discussions to be had about the length of any strike. But there is an acceptance that a lengthier strike may be what is needed to make the company see sense.”

In an indication of the deteriorating relationship between BA and cabin crew shop stewards, only a handful of flight attendant representatives will be able to attend today’s meeting because the airline has not released union officials from rostered duties, according to a union source.

Willie Walsh, the BA chief executive, has dismissed as “nonsense” claims by Unite and more than 100 industrial relations academics that he has embarked on a union-breaking exercise. The airline has repeatedly called on Unite and Bassa, its main cabin crew branch, to end the dispute over cuts in staffing levels on flights, which have been carried out without any compulsory redundancies.

However, the dispute has mushroomed into a clash over the removal of staff travel perks from 5,000 cabin crew who joined the first phase of walkouts in March and the disciplining of 55 staff over incidents related to the industrial action. Woodley and Simpson urged cabin crew to reject a BA peace offer, which partially addressed the staffing cuts, because it did not fully reinstate the discounted BA travel scheme or pledge leniency for the disciplined staff, including a senior Bassa representative who was sacked last week.

The new row over staff travel has raised the threat of a legal challenge from BA, after the airline wrote to Unite last week querying whether the union is now preparing to strike over a separate issue that has not been subjected to an official ballot. The first wave of strikes, over two consecutive weekends in March, cost BA around ยฃ43m with the six days of disruption due to the volcanic ash cloud costing a further ยฃ100m.

BA is seeking cuts in its cabin crew budget because it is on track to have lost around ยฃ1bn over the past two years.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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