Airlines Information

LONDON (AFP) – British Airways (BA) cabin crew launched a four-day strike 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.
Another 18 percent of its 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 said the "vast majority" of its 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 trade union Unite, whose members are staging seven days in total of strikes, the union claimed the cost to BA would be 100 million pounds (111 million euros, 149 million dollars).
"If you add together the cost of lost bookings, of revenue effectively transferred to other airlines along with BA passengers, the cost of (leased) aircraft and the cost of knock-on post-strike disruption, this is the ball-park area we are in," the union said in a statement.
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 full cost of the 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 wave of strikes.
Walsh came under fire from leading academics in a letter to The Guardian newspaper published Friday.
The letter, signed by 116 industrial relations experts from universities across Britain, argued that Walsh's actions were designed to break Unite, which represents BA's 12,000 cabin crew.
They added that Walsh had withdrawn an offer which could have prevented Unite's strikes -- and used airplanes from fierce rival Ryanair to combat last weekend's strike.
BA has also axed highly-prized perks like big travel discounts for all 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.
"What other possible interpretation can there be for Willie Walsh tabling an inferior offer to BA's previous one, or indeed his marshalling of resources, including those of bitter rival Ryanair, to undermine the action of his staff?"
BA issued a curt response to deny that it was seeking to break Unite.
"We reject the suggestion that BA's real objective is to break Unite," the carrier said in comments emailed to journalists.
BA is hoping to fly a full and normal schedule from London's City and Gatwick airports over the next four days.
At London Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports, the carrier said it would operate 70 percent of long-haul and 55 percent of its short-haul flights.
The airline, 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, BA 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 with a general election expected to take place in May, the main opposition Conservatives have accused the government of a weak response to the strike because Unite is a major donor to Brown's ruling Labour party.

LONDON – A three-day strike by British Airways cabin crew affecting thousands of travelers began Saturday after last-ditch talks between the airline's management and union leaders collapsed.
The walkout has forced BA to cancel thousands of flights, but it still hopes to operate around 65 percent of its international schedule over the period.
The Unite union has gathered some support from unions in the United States, Germany and Spain for its action — taken to protest a pay freeze and changes to working conditions — but the other unions have so far stopped short of pledging direct action that would affect BA's ability to refuel and service its planes.
A total of 1,100 flights out of the 1,950 flights scheduled to operate during the walkout will be canceled, but the airline has leased planes and crew from rival carriers to take up some of the shortfall.
At its Heathrow base, more than 60 percent of long-haul flights will operate, but only 30 percent of short-haul. At Gatwick, all long-haul flights and more than half the short-haul flights will run as normal.
"Tens of thousands of BA people stand ready to serve our customers," said BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh. "BA will be flying tomorrow."
Adam Huberman of Issta, a flight and tour agency specializing in trips to Israel, said he was taking 60 to 80 calls a day from passengers planning to travel to Israel before Passover, which starts March 30.
He said the strike couldn't have come at a worse time.
"It is the busiest time of the year," he said, adding that the agency had put on some flights of its own. "Some will be able to go but fares are obviously higher because it's so last minute."
Among others whose plans were affected were the Cardiff County and Vale of Glamorgan Youth Band from Wales, who are scheduled to play in a wind band festival at Carnegie Hall in New York on Tuesday.
Their scheduled Saturday flight was one of the ones BA has canceled, but after television and radio appeals — and a letter to rival virgin Atlantic — BA managed to get them onto alternative planes.
Picket lines will be mounted over the weekend at several entrances to Heathrow, but Walsh said he had "no concern whatsoever" about the threat of solidarity actions in other countries.
The U.S. International Brotherhood of Teamsters urged travelers to find alternatives during the strike.
"We are keenly aware of British Airways' operations in the United States and the cities served by the airline," the Teamsters, who represent 40,000 workers in the aviation industry, said in a statement. "We continue to look at this situation as it evolves and are keeping our options open."
Walsh said it was "deeply regrettable" that the union declined to accept a proposal on pay and working conditions from the airline, adding that offer would be withdrawn once the strike begins.
Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley said that BA "does not want to negotiate and ultimately wants to go to war with this union."
The prospect of travel chaos in Britain in the run-up to the Easter break also intensified with news that railway signal workers voted in favor of a strike, joining rail maintenance workers. The Rail Maritime and Transport union has not called dates for a walkout of both groups of workers but has refused to rule out the Easter long weekend.
The prospective industrial unrest is an unwelcome turn of events for the ruling Labour Party on the eve of a national election.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for the strike to be called off immediately.
"The Prime Minister believes that this strike is in no one's interest and will cause unacceptable inconvenience to passengers," his office said in a statement.
"As the country struggles out of the recession, the last thing we need is the unions holding the country to ransom," said Theresa Villiers, the opposition Conservative Party's transport spokeswoman.
BA argues that the disputed changes — including a pay freeze in 2010, a switch to part-time work for 3,000 staff and a reduction in cabin crew sizes from 15 to 14 on long-haul flights from Heathrow airport — are critical for its survival. Unite argues it was not properly consulted on the changes.
BA said Friday it had offered to modify the changes, even though they had been approved by Britain's High Court, but Unite had declined to put the offer to its members to vote.
Analysts estimate that BA has already lost more than 25 million pounds because of canceled tickets and the cost of contingency plans, which include leasing fully crewed planes from other airlines.
Unite has a second, four-day walkout planned to begin March 27 and has said more strikes will be scheduled for after April 14 if the dispute is not resolved. It has pledged not to walk out over the busy Easter period.

HONG KONG - Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. returned to profit in 2009 as cost-cutting measures and bets on fuel prices helped Asia's No. 3 carrier rebound from its biggest loss ever the year before.

Hong Kong's flagship airline reported profit of $4.7 billion Hong Kong dollars ($601 million) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

That compared to a record loss of HK$8.6 billion ($1.1 billion) in 2008 amid plummeting demand for travel and volatile fuel prices that soured the company's hedging contracts.

For all of 2009, revenue declined by nearly 23 per cent to around $HK70 billion (close to $9 billion).

Cathay said there was a pickup in passenger and cargo traffic as the recession abated but demand had yet to bounce back to levels seen before the slump.

Also helping the airline were measures it took to drastically reduce costs and the sale of part of its stake in Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering for $243 million.

Higher fuel prices, meanwhile, helped the company recoup on its hedging bets. Cathay reported a gains of nearly $258 million last year on its hedging contracts.

"While we welcomed the improvement in business in the latter part of 2009, we remain cautious about the prospects for 2010," Cathay's chairman Christopher Pratt said in a statement

Passenger traffic at Cathay and its subsidiary Dragonair was down by 1.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the company brought in about 30 per cent less revenue from cargo traffic, with the amount of freight carried by Cathay and Dragon slipping around 7 per cent.

Cathay shares were up 1.9 per cent in afternoon trade.

GENEVA (AP) — Global airlines are undergoing a surprisingly strong recovery with Asian and Latin American carriers leading the way, the leading industry group said Thursday as it halved its loss forecast for 2010 to $2.8 billion.

The International Air Transport Association said carriers began bouncing back late last year, and have continued to see stronger demand after posting record losses during the global economic crisis. The group also lowered its 2009 loss estimate to $9.4 billion from $11 billion because of the year-end rally.

"We are starting to see some blue skies ahead of us," said IATA chief executive Giovanni Bisignani.




The group, which represents 240 airline companies worldwide, had predicted in December that 2010 losses would total $5.6 billion because of the "extraordinarily low" yields airlines are generating — the average price someone pays to fly one mile.

Yields are now expected to improve 2 percent for passenger planes, and 3.1 percent for cargo traffic this year, despite a glut of planes on the market and lower corporate travel budgets. Both key statistics dived 14 percent in 2009.

Passenger demand should grow 5.6 percent for the year, while cargo demand could jump 12 percent, IATA added. It said strong growth in Asia and Latin America was offsetting lagging demand in Europe and the United States.

"We are seeing a definite two-speed industry," Bisignani told reporters. He noted that American and European travelers may take a longer time to return to higher-priced business class seats for short-haul flights, and said markets in their regions continued to contract.

European carriers are expected to post a $2.2 billion loss, the largest in the world, while North American airlines could lose $1.8 billion because of a jobless recovery and poor consumer confidence, the group said. By contrast, Asian-Pacific companies could make $2.7 billion and Latin American carriers another $800 million.

Bisignani said 2010 represents the halfway point in a recovery effort that could take three years — even if that still doesn't mean profits. Airlines should generate $44 billion in revenues more than last year, but that is still be $43 billion below the industry's 2008 peak, he said.

IATA warned, however, that higher fuel costs would hamper any industrywide rebound. It is now gauging an average oil price of $79 a barrel for the year, meaning $132 billion in costs for carriers. That's over a quarter of all operating costs.

"Oil is a wild card," Bisignani conceded.

Speaking on industry developments, he noted over 30 airlines were knocked out of business since the crisis began and that carriers have lost nearly $50 billion in the last decade. They now hold over $200 billion in debts.

"This is not the time for increases in salaries or prices for services," Bisignani said, without mentioning specifically Lufthansa's strike last month or similar action threatened at British Airways.

"It's certainly not the time for strikes," he said. "All the partners need to work together to get out of these red numbers."