The travelling public’s patience was pushed to the limit today (10 March) as negotiations over the BA strike passed a deadline for the second time without any news emerging.

British Airways and the Unite union had initially said talks would end at 5pm yesterday, by which time either a deal would be reached or BA strike dates would be announced.

Both sides subsequently signed up to a postponement until midday Wednesday, however, and in a move that only protracts the misery for travellers that second deadline has once again passed in silence.

Reports suggest that both sides have made new offers to end the BA strike dispute and talks have been adjourned while the airline considers Unite’s proposal.

A spokesperson for BA said she was not willing to give a running commentary on the status of the talks, but with hundreds of thousands of passengers still in the dark over whether they are affected the airline is coming under intense pressure to make a final call over the negotiations.

“One of the fundamental problems of talks late in the day is that you have to wonder what on earth the parties have been discussing without success in the preceding months,” Saj Ahmad, airline analyst at FBE Aerospace, told Cheapflights after the second deadline passed without news.

“It’s all very well to sit down when a sense of panic approaches over the threat of industrial action, but both BA and Unite are systematically alienating the customers that keep the business going.

He added: “Already a loss-making airline, BA cannot afford to spill yet more red ink. It has to draw a line in the sand soon, otherwise it will lose even more business and stay unprofitable.”

Unite’s new proposal would reportedly deliver £63 million in savings, incorporating a 2.6 per cent pay cut for cabin crew this year along with a reduction in allowances. Crucially, however, it limits reductions to staffing levels to certain flights – a constraint which BA boss Willie Walsh is unlikely to accept.

But irrespective of the eventual outcome, passenger rights advocates are calling on the airline to act decisively and either strike a deal or confirm that negotiations have failed.

The airline has taken extraordinary measures to counteract the effect of any BA strike, enlisting some 6,000 volunteer cabin crew members drawn from across the company – 1,000 of whom are fully trained – and leasing out 23 aircraft complete with stand-in flight attendants from other carriers.

Mr Walsh took a defiant tone last week when he revealed that BA had made contingency plans to keep passengers in the air during walkouts. “These plans will allow us to protect our customers’ travel arrangements better than many people imagined possible,” he said at the time.

With two deadlines now passed, and with loyal passengers still none the wiser as to whether industrial action will be called, many now want the airline boss to make good on his pledge.

© Cheapflights Ltd (Creative Commons image: Canon EOS / Flickr)

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