British Airways and striking cabin crews both are revealed to claim the upper hand yesterday, on the first of three days of industrial action.
Despite having to drop hundreds of flights, the airline revealed that 52 per cent of its Heathrow cabin crew had joined the work, and 97 per cent of its Gatwick crew, and that a full long-haul service was operating.
Unite, however, claimed that 80 per cent of its 12,000 cabin crew members stood in favour of the strike, and that BA was operating only a third of scheduled departures.
The union spokesperson quoted, "The disruption will become more serious as the days progress,” adding that BA was operating some planes with just a small number of passengers and Heathrow's Terminal 5 was like a "ghost town".
The three-day strike is reported to have gone higher following Unite claim that it had been asked to handle "mission impossible" when management underwent a worse deal in last week's last-minute talks to fend off the industrial action.
In addition, Unite revealed today that BA had been unable to commit to increasing the validity of the current industrial action ballot so that members could vote on any offer from BA.