For the first time in British Airways history, the airport was forced to cancel almost all flights due to one of the largest pilot strikes an airline has faced in years.
The strike took place this past Monday and Tuesday, and was organized by the group British Airlines Pilots Association, or BALPA for short, in response to new pay negotiations from British Airways themselves. The push back doesn’t seem to be slowing down either, BALPA has already announced that they plan on striking again on September 27th, forcing the BA, British Airways, to urge travelers against flying in through their airport that day. The strike hindered the travel plans of nearly 200,000 passengers this week, so the BA is doing everything they can to try to avoid another major blockage.
The strike occurred because of BA’s offer to increase pilot salaries 11.5% steadily over the course of the next three years, this offer wasn’t good enough for the pilots of BALPA. Pilots feel they are deserving of a greater salary bump which could be taken from the increasing profits the airline is bringing in every year. In 2018 the BA reported that they made a profit of what would be equivalent to $2.5 billion, which is an 11% increase in the profits brought in the previous year.
Compared to American Pilots, who make anywhere between $40,000-$180,000 a year, it seems as though this raise is more than enough. However, representatives from the BALPA have made it clear that it’s not only about the money, but more so the level of respect between the hard workers who keep the airline running, and individuals at the corporate level.
Strutton also discussed how the dispute could be settled for an additional evenly distributed $5,500,000 but it’s unclear how they arrived at that specific [converted] figure. The BA is resisting these demands mainly because 90% of the staff have accepted the original offer of 11.5% over three years including the flight attendants, engineers, ground staff, etc. the pilots union is the only one to refuse, however, that’s a pretty important group to the BA staff refusing to work.
BA is trying their hardest to recover from this past Monday and Tuesday, and are offering the effected passengers refunds, or assistance rescheduling their flights through other airlines. In addition, they’re urging all individuals who are planning on flying through BA on September 27th to reschedule or relocate since BALPA has already announced this will be the date of their next strike, and a third will be occurring shortly after unless negotiations for salary are made. The BA is already working on contacting everyone who has a ticket scheduled for that date as well. For British Airways themselves, every strike costs them approximately $48 million in lost revenue, and BALPA predicts if they follow through with all three strikes, the airline will lose approximately $148 million total.
British Airways is under the International Consolidated Airlines Group (ICAG) who’s stock as decreased a total of 31% this year due to airline strikes at multiple different airports in the group, all over pilot salary disputes. With the BA being one of the most significant strikes, due to the 200,000 cancellations, the ICAG is trying themselves to resolve this issue as quickly and efficiently as possible. For further updates, check British Airways official website, which is updating itself as fast as newer developments regarding the strike are being made.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
