British Airways cabin crew launched a new five-day strike on Sunday, as a bitter dispute with management over pay and working conditions drags on with little sign of a breakthrough. BA said flights to and from Heathrow, one of Europe’s busiest hubs, will be affected by the walkout.
But the carrier said it can operate more than half of its services because more cabin crew than expected had decided to cross the picket line.
It said all flights will operate at the smaller Gatwick and London City airports.
Cabin crew walked off their jobs on May 24 and began the new round of strikes on Sunday after talks collapsed on Friday.
They plan to strike for another five days from June 5, if a solution to the long-running dispute is not found. Seven days of walkouts in March over the same dispute cost BA around £43 million. The airline said it planned to fly more than 70 per cent of its long-haul flights, compared to the 60 percent it operated during last week’s strike action.
Fifty-five per cent of short-haul flights will take off, slightly more than the 50 per cent last week.
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Di memory being erased by royals?
London : In what could apparently erase Princess Diana’s memory, the British Royal family has ordered an overhaul of the Kensington Palace which was once the late Princess of Wales’ residence.
The £12-million revamp begins next week and is due to be completed in time for the British Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June 2012.
It will see Diana, arguably the Princess most closely associated with the royal residence, take a back seat to other past residents including Princess Margaret and Queen Victoria, the Daily Express reported.
This is because Diana’s apartment is used as office space, so the revamp might disappoint her fans who flocked to the 17th century palace in London to lay flowers after her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
Over the past decade, it has played host to a number of Diana-related exhibitions including displays of her evening gowns and portraits taken by her photographer Mario Testino.
—PTI