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Twin strikes will prolong misery for air travellers
(The Daily Telegraph, Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) THE misery faced by airline passengers during the terrorism scare looked set to continue last night after two unions announced strike plans.
First, pilots working for the no-frills carrier bmibaby voted to walk out. Then Aslef, the train drivers' union, announced plans for four days of stoppages on the Gatwick Express.
The pilots' vote means that a walk-out could take place at any time over the next 28 days, although Balpa, the pilots' union, said it would not take action over the August bank holiday. The airline flies out of a number of airports, including Heathrow, Aberdeen, Manchester, Norwich, Southampton, Stornoway, Cardiff, Birmingham, East Midlands, Teesside, Edinburgh and Belfast.
Further industrial action could follow if, as expected, pilots working for two other airline divisions - bmi mainline and bmi regional - also vote to walk out. The result of their ballot will be declared in a week's time.
Aslef said its members would walk out from midnight to midnight on Aug 25 and 29, with the union's second wave of strikes being planned for Sept 11, 22 and 25.
Aslef will soon announce the results of a ballot among drivers working for Heathrow Express who, it is believed, are also likely to back industrial action. The position of travellers in London is even worse, with the normally moderate white collar Transport and Salaried Staffs Association planning a 48-hour stoppage from noon on Sunday Aug 27 - during the bank holiday weekend - with further walkouts scheduled for Aug 31 and Sept 7.
Airports returned to some semblance of normality yesterday. British Airways cancelled 36 flights out of Heathrow, five fewer than Wednesday, and 11 out of Gatwick. BA expects to run a full long-haul schedule from Heathrow today. However there will be 19 short-haul flights cancelled. Gatwick expects to run a full schedule. Tomorrow, the airline plans to run a full schedule, with minimal delays.
The airline said it had been continuing to cancel flights until it was fully confident in its own and Heathrow's ability to operate a full schedule. It had announced the scrapped flights 48 hours in advance to give customers as much notice as possible to rebook.
Gatwick airport and Sussex Police are reviewing security after a boy of 12 who had run away from a care home in Merseyside managed to board a Monarch Airlines plane bound for Lisbon on Monday.
It is believed that the boy ducked behind travellers as they went through initial document and passport checks.
He is understood to have passed through the X-ray machine and went through to the plane without being asked to show a boarding pass.
It was only when he boarded without a stub that staff realised something was amiss.
The GMB union claimed that, in another incident, checked-in luggage was wheeled across a non-secure area at Gatwick last weekend.
Copyright 2006 The Daily Telegraph. Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Europe Intelligence Wire.
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