Right after British Airways had already canceled flights in anticipation for the scheduled September 27 strike, the pilot's union announced this week that are now calling off their next strike.
The sudden decision to call off the strike has left British Airways in a rather precarious predicament, which is costing them more money and damage to reputation than initially anticipated.
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) held their last strike around a week ago. The two-day strike called by the pilot's union forced British Airways to cancel almost all of its flights during those days. The strike was then following by several negotiations, which unfortunately failed to end the dispute.
The first strikes, which were held on September 9 and 10, was reported a demonstration of the "anger and resolve" of the pilots. In an attempt to put an end to the strike, British Airways agreed to hold face-to-face negotiations. The initial strike forced British Airways to cancel more than 1,700 flights, which affected around 200,000 passengers.
In July, British Airways offered its pilots an 11 percent pay rise over three years. BALPA outright rejected the offer. The exact details of the most recent negotiations have not yet been revealed, but BALPA likely did not find British Airway's latest offer to be sufficient.
In response to questions regarding the calling off of the strike, a BALPA spokesperson explained that they had decided against the next strike to prevent any further damage to the airline brand.
BALPA general secretary Brian Strutton mentioned to reporters that since British Airways hadn't taken any initiative to sort out the dispute, the union has now decided to take a more responsible course of action. BALPA did caution that they still retained the rights to announced further strikes at later dates if the issue isn't immediately rectified.
British Airways also responded to the news and stated that they will now be considering the possible implications of the cancellation and will be giving updates regarding the situation at a later date.
Right after BALPA threatened to hold another strike, British Airways immediately started to cancel flights. The canceled flights were the company's attempt to take advantage of the 14-day cancellation window so that it will not be liable to pay passengers compensation.
However, now that the strike has been called off, British Airways will have to attempt to reinstate the canceled flights. This will, of course, be a big problem for passengers who had already adjusted their travel plans because of the initial cancellations.
