Page ^ Daily Mail, Thursday, August 8, 2019WE’RE NOT GOING ON
HEATHROW HEATHROW
thousands of British Airways passengers at
Heathrow and Gatwick.
More than 400 flights were cancelled or
delayed before the issue was fixed, leaving BA
facing a £16million compensation bill and
knock-on disruption that could continue
today. Ryanair pilots – who are already paid
up to £180,000 a year – added to the agony last
night by announcing plans to strike later this
month in a dispute over pay and benefits.
The walkout – orchestrated by pilots’ union
Balpa – is scheduled to go ahead on August 22
and August 23, the height of the summer holi-
days. It is set to overlap with a separate strike
by around 4,000 Heathrow workers, including
security staff and engineers, which is due to
go ahead on August 23 and 24.
At the same time, passengers are still facing
the threat of a strike by British Airways pilots.
Their union is still locked in talks with the
carrier over a pay dispute that could yet trig-
ger a walkout later this month.
The unrest threatens further misery for holi-
daymakers at one of the busiest times of the
year, when tens of thousands of families are
heading abroad. Last night, Tory MP Steve
Double, a member of the commons Transport
committee, criticised unions for worsening
the disruption. ‘Unions should not be holding£180k-a-year Ryanair pilots want rise
holidaymakers to ransom to
extract better pay deals for their
members,’ he said.
The torment began at 6am for
thousands of families at Heathrow,
Gatwick and London City yester-
day when British Airways’ onlineplaints of a ‘pathetic’ lack of infor-
mation, and a shortage of BA staff
on hand to help.
To make matters worse, Gatwick
passengers were also hit by cancel-
lations or delays on the Gatwick
Express rail service from London
Victoria. Naomi Leach of Which?
Travel, said: ‘This apparent BA
systems failure is another kick in
the teeth for travellers who are
likely to have spent weeks worry-
ing about whether their holidayflights will take off.’ Passengers
were offered the chance to re-book
their flights or apply for a refund.
But some families desperate to
get away for their summer break
paid hundreds of pounds on flights
with other airlines, meaning they
could be left heavily out of pocket.
BA has been plagued by previous
IT issues. In 2017 a power outage
at Heathrow stranded tens of
thousands of passengers over the
May bank holiday weekend. Theairline is also facing a record
£183million fine after hackers stole
the personal details of up to half a
million passengers last year.
Chief executive Alex Cruz did not
make a public apology yesterday,
but was understood to be working
all day at Heathrow to help deal
with the problem. A BA spokesman
said: We apologise to all our cus-
tomers caught up in the disruption,
and appreciate how frustrating
their experience has been. Mean-while, the announcement of strike
action by Ryanair pilots only added
to the frustration. Along with this
month’s planned walkouts, more
are planned for September 2 and 4.
Balpa will not say how many
pilots are involved, but the union
is understood to represent around
half of the airline’s flyers.
The threat of a separate pilots’
strike at BA will hang over hun-
dreds of thousands of Britons who
have booked flights with the air-
line this summer. The protest
involving around 4,000 workers at
Heathrow, including security staff
and engineers, will still go ahead if
they reject an improved pay offer.
A walkout scheduled for Monday
and Tuesday was suspended.
One of the world’s biggest air-
lines, BA made record profits of
almost £2billion last year, flying
more than 145,000 passengers a
day. The carrier, in its centenary
year, employs around 4,500 pilots –
with captains paid an average of
£167,000.Going nowhere: Dozens of
passengers wait in queues
after IT meltdown yesterday‘Holding families
to ransom’GATWICK
check-in system crashed. As staff
were forced to process baggage
manually, huge queues built up.
Passengers were also unable to
check in online.
By the time BA announced the
problem had been sorted around
ten hours later, around 127 flights
had been cancelled and 300 were
delayed, affecting 70,000 holiday-
makers. The IT glitch caused
knock-on disruption at airports
around the UK, as well as far afield
as Japan, India and the US. BA
now faces a potential £16million
compensation bill, with short-haul
passengers eligible for a payout of
up to £230 under EU rules.
Some passengers described
scenes of ‘bedlam’ at Heathrow’s
Terminal 5. There were also com-Continued from Page OneRYANAIR pilots on salaries of up to £180,000 a
year are preparing to inflict more misery on
holidaymakers by going on strike over pay.
Members of the British Airline Pilots Associa-
tion (Balpa) voted by 4-1 to back a campaign of
action on a turnout of 72 per cent of members.
Strikes are scheduled for August 22 and 23, as
well as from September 2 to September 4.
The action is likely to ground hundreds of
flights, throwing the holiday plans of hundreds
of thousands into doubt.
Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton said itdid not want to ‘spoil travel plans’ but had ‘no
choice’. The union said the row centres around
issues including the airline’s failure to provide a
‘fair, transparent, and consistent pay structure’.
But Ryanair questioned the legitimacy of the
strike, saying Balpa represents less than half of
its 1,250 UK pilots.
It said: ‘Any threat of industrial action should be
taken off the table and Balpa should work with us
to preserve UK pilot jobs, not destroy them.’By James Salmon Transport EditorLeft: Go back home, BA tells its customers. Above: Grim-faced passengers, many of them with nowhere to even sit down,ПОДГОТОВИЛА
ГРУППА"What's News"
VK.COM/WSNWS