British Airways Cabin Crew Launches Second Wave Strike

British Airways cabin crew launched a four-day strike on Saturday, the second wave of action in a week as part of a bitter, long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

BA has pledged that more than three-quarters of its passengers — or over 180,000 out of 240,000 — will still be able to travel as planned during the walkout, which follows a similar three-day action last week.

A further 18 percent of customers have been rebooked with other airlines, or have switched their travel dates to avoid the strike period, it said.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh, who insists the company could fold in a decade unless the changes he wants take place, said the “vast majority” of staff were “pulling together to serve our customers and keep our flag flying”.

“At the same time, I feel really sorry for those customers whose plans have been ruined by the Unite union’s completely unjustified action,” he added.

Amid growing hostility between BA and Unite, the trade union which represents BA’s 12,000 cabin crew, the union claimed the cost to the airline would be 100 million pounds (111 million euros, 149 million US dollars).

By contrast, BA said Monday that a three-day walkout from last Saturday would cost seven million pounds a day and that an assessment of the cost of the full seven-day action could only be made after it was finished.

Talks between the two sides broke down eight days ago, on the eve of the first strikes.

In a letter to The Guardian newspaper Friday, 116 industrial relations experts from universities across Britain accused Walsh of trying to break Unite.

They said he had withdrawn an offer which could have prevented the strikes and noted he had used other airlines — including budget carrier Ryanair — to help carry passengers and undermine the effectiveness of the action.

BA has also axed highly-prized travel discounts for striking workers.

“It is clear to us that the actions of the chief executive of British Airways… are explicable only by the desire to break the union which represents the cabin crew,” the academics’ letter read.

BA denies this, and in an interview with the Daily Telegraph Saturday, Walsh said the reforms he wanted were vital to the company’s survival.

“We are trying to transform the way we operate because the industry is changing and the economic conditions have changed so radically that we’ve got to change,” Walsh said.

“We’re doing this to make sure BA still exists in 10 years. If we don’t do this, BA won’t exist in 10 years.”

The airline is hoping to fly a full schedule from London’s City and Gatwick airports during the strikes and at Heathrow will operate 70 percent of long-haul and 55 percent of short-haul flights.

A BA spokesman said around 0900 GMT on Saturday that cabin crew were reporting as normal at Gatwick and there were enough staff at Heathrow to operate their published schedule.

However, Heathrow passenger John Cawley from Liverpool said he would never fly with BA again.

Cawley, 54, was due to fly to the United States with his family from Heathrow but their internal flight was cancelled and they had to spend hundreds of pounds on a hire car to drive to the airport instead.

“We’ll never use BA again, we wouldn’t want to go through all this again,” he said.

BA, which is attempting to merge with Spanish rival Iberia, said last month it expected to notch up a record loss in the current financial year due to weak demand for air travel.

In December, it won a legal battle to prevent a 12-day walkout by cabin crew over Christmas and New Year after a judge ruled that a ballot of staff by Unite was invalid.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has condemned the strike but, just weeks before a general election, faces accusations of a weak response from the Conservatives because Unite is a major donor to Labour.

Ghana’s Response Delta Airlines Flight Route Services

Ghana’s directive urging the Atlanta-based Delta Airline to improve its New-York-Accra service and treat passengers in a more humane manner is long overdue, but a welcome development that exemplifies how governments respond to the concerns of its citizenry.

The directive, whether it will be given the attention it deserves (due to the casual response from the airline’s management), or marginalized as one of those periodic complaints from an African government, is yet to be seen, but it satisfies one of the requirements, a protest which constitutes an indictment on Delta Airline’s deficient customer relations/ operational standards, packaged in the worst form for Ghana-bound passengers.

Not everything about Delta airline is bad, but it must raise its “Sigma” score.

My first experience with Delta on July 1st 2009, was not only excruciating and complicated, but mimics how an airline with a reputable record across the United States will set a different standard for its New-York-Accra route.

After a three-hour delay from Atlanta to New-York due to a refueling mistake, which the airline apologized, the ensuing encounter with Delta staff in New-York opened a can of worms and unfair treatment of passengers. Through no fault of passengers, a connecting flight to Accra was missed, and it took hours of convincing before Delta could offer me a cheap hotel, plus a cheap dinner and breakfast coupon.

Luck played a part, but it was also due to the fact that I stood up to their nonsense, illogical argument, counter-argument, and fallacies. Delta staff can advance some weak arguments which have no basis in logic; they slang and rant in New-York when they are in short of intelligent answers.

Others were unlucky and in the usual Ghanaian fashion “Gave The Matter to God”, a sad story of how Ghanaians and other passengers who had travelled from Canada, Missouri, and other parts of the United States to connect a flight to Accra , were left stranded at the JFK Airport in New-York to fend for themselves.

Some travelers slept at the airport; others had to check-in into nearby hotels at their own expense. Others called for help from friends and relatives living in the New-York area. Such was the ordeal, and what many passengers had to endure.

I thought the drama was over, but “things fell apart again, and the center could not hold” on my August 5, 2009 return journey from Accra to New-York.

Once again, I had to delve into my journalistic past to become ‘a voice for the voiceless”, and intervene to bring to order a Delta airhostess who was “ordering passengers about like kids” and “talking down to them”. She did realize her guilt and apologized to me, but I insisted her apology was being directed to the wrong person, that the right recipients were those that she ‘mistreated”.

It is refreshing to know, that the government of Ghana is considering opening the New-York-Accra route to other airlines so as to promote the much needed competition to Delta’s operation. This, when it becomes a reality, would accelerate the re-branding of Delta and other airlines to save their corporate image in Africa.

African politicians walk and talk through two doors. They share one of the doors with the public through a strong directive, the other with the corporate world through a soft touch.

This is why what Ghana’s Transport Minister, Mike Hammah has expressed to the world as regards Delta’s poor services , must be monitored with a critical eye until there is an improvement in the airline’s service on the Accra route.

No individual prays for the demise of a profitable and convenient airline business, guided by the notion that in Delta’s example, it facilitates job creation in the United States and Ghana, a “win-win situation” which Delta should accept without blemish to reverse shortfalls that are gradually discoloring its reputation.

To be silent over corporate/ or managerial deficiencies represents the worst form of submission, for as they say in Ghana, “if we do not highlight shortfalls and unfair treatment, our 6 would be turned into a 9” (literally, the act of cheating and disrespecting people), a bad omen that cannot withstand the wrath of the traveling public.

More so, when it is being perpetuated by an airline whose life-line or bottom-line depends on a portion of what comes out of our pocket, solely necessitated by our desire to visit the homeland from the United States, or vice-versa, at which time we have to deal with an airline.

At journalism school, Kwame Duffour (Verbosity) advised us to keep our pens, for as societies evolve, and businesses become vibrant, all manner of people and the corporate world would seize the opportunity to trample upon the individual’s liberties, among others.

“When these things unfold”, Duffour charged, “grab your pens and use them”.

Lo and Behold, his concern is now a reality, and not a surprise.

Strengthened by this, and as in Shakespeare’s Othello: “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve”, against the backdrop of Delta’s sinking image in Ghana.

Airlines Company : Alitalia Stop 100 Flight Service 100 End Of November

Alitalia has said that it will cut 100 flights a day through the end of November, due the ongoing labour action by flight attendants and pilots, according to the bankruptcy administrator for the troubled airline.

Some employees at the airline have caused havoc for over a week, staging unannounced work slowdowns in protest of some aspects of a bailout plan for the carrier proposed by a group of Italian investors.

The airline has said that the protestors have been following job rules strictly and calling in sick, slowing down operations, causing flights delays and resulting in the cancellations of hundreds of services.

Augusto Fantozzi, Alitalia’s bankruptcy administrator appointed by the government, told La Repubblica that the workers’ protest was costing the carrier millions of euros daily. The bankrupt airline was already losing around two million euros daily.

Fantozzi added that Alitalia would scrap 100 of its 600 daily flights through the end of November, when it is expected that the sale of the airline will be completed.

Passengers will be reimbursed for cancelled flights, or accommodated on other flights. The administrator urged all Alitalia passengers to check on the status of their flight on the airline’s website.

A spokesman for the airline would not comment on the figures put forth by Fantozzi.

Unions involved in the protest maintain that the carrier is also to blame for the disruptions that have occurred, saying that flights are intentionally being cancelled to save money.

source : alitalia.com

Southwest Triggers Turf War And Lower Prices By Landing In Boston

Southwest began flying out of Boston-Logan last Sunday, a move that their CEO once declared would never ever happen. Nonetheless, we weren’t particularly surprised: we flagged the expansion back in April when they announced their routes, and again a few weeks ago when AirTran gave them a “welcome to Boston” by announcing free WiFi for Boston flights.

What is much more interesting is what the move means for the LCC niche and the airline industry as a whole, two different markets that are increasingly difficult to untangle.

We’d add that this is also increasingly true not just for specific foreign markets—Europe has long been an LCC playground—but also for the broader international market. Malaysia’s gigantic AirAsia X, an LCC known to brag about its own awesomeness, just announced flights from Kuala Lumpur to Abu Dhabi starting November. The new route will finally allow them to take customers from Southeast Asia to one of the Middle East’s chief travel hubs.

Back to BOS: Southwest’s entrance has introduced all kinds of delicious turf war dynamics to the airport. AirTran knew what they were doing with the free WiFi. They’re now competing head-to-head for airport hubs like BWI and Milwaukee, which all but guarantees future deals. JetBlue responded by adding a $39 Boston-Baltimore route right after Southwest launched theirs. Downward pressure is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Luthansa Airline Pilots Plan Strike Action

Pilots at Europe’s biggest airline, Lufthansa, will stage a new four-day strike from 13 April, following the breakdown of talks with management.

Pilot union, Vereinigung Cockpit, says it cannot accept a proposed pay freeze unless bosses stick to what it says was an “agreed deal” on job security.

A similar strike in late February was called off after one day after both sides agreed to new negotiations.

That strike was set to cost the airline around $25m a day.

The Cockpit union said Lufthansa was offering a 21-month pay freeze combined with worsening conditions.

It said in a statement: “We can only agree to a pay freeze or even reducing salaries if Lufthansa sticks to an already-agreed deal on safeguarding jobs.”

It means Lufthansa pilots will join colleagues at the carrier’s Germanwings affiliate and Lufthansa Cargo in striking to press for more job security.

‘Compatible’ offer

The pilots say they will wait until after the Easter holiday to minimise disruption to passengers.

The German airline said in a statement that its latest offer was “compatible with the company’s situation and economic conditions”.

Like other carriers, Lufthansa is trying to push through cost-cutting plans in the face of the global financial crisis, soaring fuel costs and competition from low-cost rivals.

The new problems at Lufthansa come as cabin crew at rival British Airways continue their strike over pay and conditions, now in its third day.