British Airways (BA) pilots are set to strike as BA’s owner IAG lost a high court appeal on Wednesday to halt the planned strike.
On the 22 July The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) voted in favour to strike which could happen in August, one of the busiest months for travel.
BA said they are “disappointed” Balpa has “chosen to threaten the holidays of thousands” of their customers.
In November Balpa met with unions to submit a joint pay claim, in July BA offered pilots an increase of 11.5% over three years, Balpa rejected this.
Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton said, “The Court of Appeal has today rightly dismissed BA’s attempt to injunct this industrial action on a technicality.
“BA’s attempt to defeat the democratic view of their pilots in court, rather than deal with us across the negotiating table, has sadly wasted huge amounts of time and money that could have been put into finding a peaceful resolution.
“Now the window for negotiation and compromise is closing fast.”
BA has previously said this could cost the airline up to £40m per day.
Coby Benson, Flight Delay Compensation Solicitor at Bott and Co said, “These strikes are bound to create chaos for millions of passengers in August and will be extremely costly for British Airways.
“The pay disputes are well within the airline’s control and the management of disgruntled staff is simply part and parcel of running any business and would not be considered an extraordinary circumstance.
“In light of this, affected passengers may be entitled to claim compensation of up to €600 each under EU Regulation 261/2004, where their flights are cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice or delayed for over three hours.
“It’s also worth noting that the regulation does not specify that re-routing has to be with the same air carrier. Therefore, British Airways has a duty to re-route their passengers affected by a cancelled flight at the earliest available opportunity on ANY airline, not just a British Airways plane.”
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