Travel Tips
Volcano Ash Shutters Airports Again as British Airways Strike Quashed
Britain’s High Court has ruled Monday in favor of an injunction to prevent 20 days of strikes by British Airways cabin crew members.
This is the second time in six months that industrial action by Unite, BA’s cabin crew member union, has been stopped by the courts.
The decision came as BA, in a last-ditch effort to block the strike, sought an injunction from the High Court this morning, claiming that the Unite did not properly inform all its members of the results of its previous strike ballots.
Unite had posted a document summarizing the full result of the strike ballot on notice boards and crew rooms at airports. BA lawyers argued that in a violation of UK labor law only half the people entitled to vote would have a chance to see the document.
BA requested that the High Court halt the strike until a full trial could be held. The High Court agreed with the airline’s assessment and has canceled the 20-day strike, a day before it was set to begin midnight Tuesday.
Previously: British Airways Strike Back On as Cabin Crews Unite
The decision means strikes will not affect an upcoming half-term school holiday or World Cup travel to South Africa.
This is the second time the High Court has intervened on BA’s behalf. In December, the airline asked the court to block a 12-day Christmas-time strike by Unite.
The decision blocked a strike that would have disrupted Christmas and New Year’s travel for more than a million people over the holiday period.
The fear of travel disruption may have weighed heavily on the High Court’s mind again as they ruled against Unite today.
This morning, plumes of ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano closed airports in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England.
More specifically, the ash forced the closures of the Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds Bradford, East Midlands and Glasgow Prestwick airports.
Learn more: A Pilot on the Iceland Volcano’s Effects on Air Travel.
The United Kingdom’s Department for Transport has warned that flights into London, including Heathrow and Gatwick airports, could be disrupted this weekend and early next week.
Hundreds of thousands of passengers were expected to be affected by the BA strike alone. The disastrous combination of airspace closures and strikes may have caused the courts to put an end to Unite’s plans.
The ruling is bit of good news in an otherwise abysmal week for BA. On Friday, the airline is expected to announce huge annual losses of about $873 million.
The figure, which is the largest loss ever reported by the airline, does not include the financial losses caused by last month’s volcanic airspace shutdowns or the Unite strikes in March.
By Adriana Padilla for PeterGreenberg.com.
Related Links: BusinessWeek, The Times (UK), Voice of America, Wall Street Journal
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