British Airways’ mixed fleet cabin crew are extending strike action by a further 14 days.
The further action by members of the Unite union will see an existing two week strike which started yesterday continue from August 2 until August 15.
This in effect, means mixed fleet cabin crew will be on strike for the next four weeks.
Yesterday was the 46th day of strike action in a dispute over pay. It followed a 16-day stoppage that ran from July 1 to July 16.
As part of the dispute, Unite has started legal action against the government’s decision to give the go-ahead to the wet lease of nine Qatar Airways Airbus aircraft by BA to cover striking cabin crew.
The union argues that the lease of aircraft and cabin crew from Qatar Airways breaches European regulations.
The airline said: “All British Airways customers will be able to fly to their destinations despite further industrial action by mixed fleet Unite between Wednesday 19 July and Tuesday 1 August.
“The union represents one of our five cabin crew fleets.
“We expect to operate virtually a full schedule but will be merging a very small number of Heathrow services. Affected customers are being notified of their new flight details with as much notice as possible.
“We expect to operate our normal schedule of short-haul flights to and from Heathrow, with our Oneworld alliance partner Qatar Airways flying a small number of these services on our behalf.
“We will be updating all of our operational systems with the details of which flights are being served by Qatar Airways on a regular basis.
“Flights to and from London Gatwick, London City and Stansted will operate as normal as will our recently launched weekend-only Mediterranean services to and from Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester.”