BA Cabin Crew Strike Postponed

April 16th British Airways’ cabin crew have agreed with the BA Managemnt to continue talks to reslove their current differences. The agreement postpones for another 28 days the deadline under UK Employment Law during which the cabin have to announce any industrial action. following the meembers vote earl;ier this year for industrial. In a joint statement BA cabincrew’s union Unite and BA Management said that any strike in the next 28 days would “severely undermine any attempt at a genuine settlement.” The statement also said Both accept that a lasting peace is essential for the well-being of all cabin crew and for the benefit of British Airways’ customers” Talks to resolve the dispute will continue in the interim.

British Airways cabin crew at Heathrow in March voted 8 1 in favour of staging another strike in a dispute that has be runing for the best part of two years. Under empylyment law any intended strike action would have to be announced by April 25th with at least seven day notice given by Unite the cabin crews union. The dispute’s orgins lie centre around reduced staffng levels introduced on BA long haul fLlight IN 2009, the withfrawl of reduced travel peks for cabin crew who striked in protest of the new staffing levels and a two year freeze.

Previous strikes BA cabin crew to force the airline’s management to negotiate on these issuesm particularly the travel perks issue have failed after the Unite Union refused to make a recconendation for or against the agreement reached with the airline. Though no strike dates have been annouced Britsh Airways are drawing up contingency plans to charter planes from rival airlines if a strike is announced to minmise the disruption to passebgers.In During past strikes this policy has meant tat most BA long haul flights have operated with passengers on BA short haul flights to Europe suffering the most.

However with a new pilot at the helm of BA’s Uk Management Board replacing former CEO Willie Walsh who seemed to relish a run-in with union the Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey may find it is easier to reach an agreement it can reccomend to it’;s members.

Heathrow Ranked 99 Out Of 146 Airports

A secret document leaked to the Times Newspare in Britain revealed that out of 146 principal airports in maJor international cities Heathrow was only ranked 99th. Figures contain in the report prepared by Eurocontrol, the European air traffic regulator, tevealed that Heathrow’s average delay per flight has increased from three to 12 minutes between 1998 and 2009.

The airport which operates at 98% of it’s capacity handles 66 million passengers a year. The 2% margin is insufficient to cope with the many problems affecting aviation these day let alone a few inches of snowfall as happened in the run up to Christmas 2009. see below. One intersting in the report is that it now takes 23 minutes longer to fly between Heathrow and Paris than it did in 1979.

British Airport Authority To Sell Stansted & A Scottish Airport As Its Appeals Fails

The Airport operator BAA (British Airport Authority is to be forced to sell London Stansted and one of its Scottish Airports properties following the decision by the Competition Commission. to rehect an appeal against its March 2009 ruling which resulted in BAA sellin off Gatwick Airport in December 2009.. The appeal was rejected as the Competition Commision xould not identify any amterial changes in the circumstances since the report was published.

An attempt by BAA to make further appeals was refused by the Supreme Court in February and the Commision’sfinal report on the sales is expected to published by the end of Jne at the latest. In a statement the Competion Commision said ” “We have re-examined the March 2009 decision in the light of a significant subsequent development when the government decided to rule out further runways at London’s airports. “Having examined the case closely, we are clear that many benefits will still arise with-out that expansion, by increasing competition and addressing detrimental effects from BAA’s common ownership.

In it’s statement the Competition Commision also added “We found that, if anything since the report, there now appears to be greater capacity available which will increase the potential for competition between the London airports and whilst no timescale has been put in place for the sales “passengers and airlines should not have to wait indefinitely”.”

BAA currently own three airports in Scoitland Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen Airports and will have to sell one of these in addition to Stansted. which will be sold first as it serves more passenger than those north of the border.

BAA To Invest £50m To Stop Heathrow Being Snowed Under Again

The British Airports Authority (BAA) who failed to open Heathrow Airport for four days following a heavy snowfall are to spend £50m to ‘improve the customer experience’ according to the company’s CEO Colin Mathews. The announcement follows the publication of ‘The Winter Resilience Report, commissioned by BAA and authored by David Begg, which severely critisced the airports capacity and competence in responding to the snowfall on December 18th. The report highlighted the lack of equipment for clearing aircraft stands, and extremely poor communication between the airport management , airlines and passengers.

The report recognised that Heathrow Airport is of “critical importance to air transport in the UK and globally”, and that it should adopt an “improved resilience target” to see that the airport never closes. To this end it made 14 specific reccomendations all of which BAA have accepted. Virgin Atlantic who during the airport closure were publically the most critical airline of the airports management welcomed the report’s findings.

In mitigation Colin Matthews, BAA’s CEO, said:“Heathrow is among the most congested airports in the world and the lack of spare capacity means that unlike every other British or European airport, we have literally no room to move when disruption occurs,” He added “This means that any problem, large or small, that slows down the rate of aircraft arriving at or leaving from Heathrow which will disrupt many people.”. He continued by confirming that he has come to an agreement with the CEOs of BA, Virgin Atlantic, BMI, NATS and the CAA to establish a partnership for Heathrows passengers.” which would meet regularly to improve every passenger’s journey at the airport.better.. He emphasied that Heathrow “As the world’s busiest airport and a vital gateway to the UK, the airline industry cannot allow this level of disruption to its customers to happen again.”

Editorial Comment. Poor communiccations between the airport management and individual airlines once the snow had fallen obviously made matters worse and anything that prevents such difficulties in future has to be welcomed. However Mr Mathews is grasping at straws if he feels that the airlines themselves should accept a significant responsibilty for what happened. It is his management team that are responsible for clearing aircraft stands and runways not the CEO’s of any airline. If this was clearance mirrored the performance of other European airports (including Gatwick which expereinced and coped with a similar snowfall) the fire-fighting communications between the airport authorities and the airlines would be less important.

At the end of day the amount of snow 18 – 20cm (though if fell fast up to 7cm in one hour at it’s peak) should not have closed one of the world’s busiest and the UK’s hub airport for four days. The debacle was a national disgrace , and an international humiliation which ruined thousand of peoples Christmas holiday plans. If the situation was ever to be replicated the British Government should send the troops in to resolve the situation immediately whether BAA wants them to or not. Snow clearance is is not the responsibilty of Richard Branson, airline cabin crew, pilots or anyone else – it is the sole responsibilty of Mr Mathews and his management team at the airport. It could happen again and If they cannot organise snow clearance they should not be running an airport with all the responsibilites that are entailed such as airport security etc and they should be fired on the spot – not by the troops though!

Jet2 Announce New Services From Edinburgh

Jet2.com, the airline with Friendly Low Fares, has announced significant new investment in Edinburgh airport today with the launch of a new route to Budapest and additional flights to the popular holiday resort of Majorca. Jet2.com will be the only airline in Scotland to run flights to Budapest three times a week during peak season. Flights will begin on 21st April with fares starting from just £29.99 one-way including taxes. Budapest is regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, popular for its balance of new with old. An extensive World Heritage Site, culture galore sits alongside an active nightlife, spas and shopping, making it an affordable city break destination whatever your interests. In addition to the new destination, to help cope with extra demand from Scottish holidaymakers, Jet2.com has increased its flights to Majorca from two per week to five per week during the 2011 summer season. Fares start from just £34.99 one-way including taxes.

The announcements come hot on the heels of the launch of Jet2.com’s new Edinburgh routes to Salzburg and Geneva for the 2010/2011 winter sports season and the addition of a fourth aircraft – a B737 – based at the airport. Today’s announcements mean that Jet2.com now serves 15 destinations from Edinburgh. The new launches will grow capacity by 40 per cent in 2010 with 300,000 seats available across the year.

Philip Meeson, boss of Jet2.com said: “We are delighted to be able to announce the new route to Budapest from Edinburgh. With both Jet2.com and Jet2holidays we now have a fantastic combination of sunshine, city break and winter flights and packages available from the airport. This means that our customers will be able to benefit from increased choice and flexibility in terms of holiday dates and budgets. “We are also committed to going that extra mile in the service that we offer, with friendly flight times, a 22kg baggage allowance, allocated seating on all of our flights and a generous loyalty scheme, meaning that our customers can get more out of their holiday.”

Kevin Brown, Managing Director, Edinburgh Airport, said: “We have been working hard with our airline partners to increase Edinburgh’s connections with European capitals. Budapest has been a target for a long time and I’m delighted that Jet2.com has created this route. Budapest is a leading destination and I’m sure it will prove extremely popular with Scottish travellers.”