British Airways hit by 2nd day of crew strike

[May 25, 2010]  LONDON (AP) -- A strike by cabin crew disrupted British Airways flights for a second day on Tuesday, mainly at London's Heathrow airport, one of Europe's busiest travel hubs.

The airline is struggling to operate as many flights as possible during the five-day walkout by the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association.

Until 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) Tuesday, the departure board at Heathrow's Terminal 5 showed all BA flights leaving on schedule. The first cancellations were for the 8:25 a.m. flight to Geneva and the 8:30 to Glasgow.

More cancellations were likely. On Monday, all arriving flights after 8:25 p.m. were canceled, and so were all the departures, according to the Terminal 5 website.

BA says it operated a full schedule from Gatwick and London City airports, compared with no more than 60 percent from Heathrow.

"Our global operations went well yesterday and we have again got off to a very good start this morning," British Airways said.

"The numbers of cabin crew reporting at Heathrow are still at the levels we need to operate our published schedule and Gatwick cabin crew continue to report as normal."

The airline said it is running its full schedule at London Gatwick and London City airports.

Underlining its determination to weather the strike, BA said it has painted the slogan "Keep the flag flying" on a dozen of its Boeing 777 aircraft.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.