British Airways was left counting the costs of a damaging 48-hour walkout by its pilots on Monday, with about £100m forecast to be wiped off profits and its chief executive admitting that the unprecedented strike action would “punish” its brand.
Shares in IAG, which owns the UK airline, dropped around 3 per cent on Monday morning as BA grounded almost all its 1,700 flights, hitting 195,000 customers.
The fall wiped off more than £200m from its market capitalisation as investors worried about the impact of the walkouts, with one top 10 shareholder admitting “you do get concerned” about the situation.
With only five BA flights planned on Monday, Heathrow’s Terminal 5 was almost deserted on Monday morning. In other terminals, passengers who had rebooked journeys with other airlines said they faced unexpected stopovers and shortened trips. The few passengers that turned up for flights were quickly offered seats in the BA lounge for staff to offer alternatives.
BA chief executive Alex Cruz said on Monday that the row with pilots over pay was “going to punish our brand” but the airline confirmed no new talks were yet scheduled to resolve the next walkout, planned for September 27.
Mr Cruz refused to comment when asked by the BBC on whether his own job was at risk. The strike comes after a damaging cyber attack on BA last year and IT problems this summer that hit hundreds of flights.
