British Airways Strike Updates

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 9:35 pm under World News British Airways Strike Updates

British Airways Strike Updates: British Airways Plc competitors EasyJet Plc and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. will add seats to meet a surge in demand as Europe’s third-largest carrier braces for a 12-day strike over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

EasyJet is looking at scheduling extra flights following a surge in Web-site hits after the Unite union announced a walkout yesterday, spokesman Oliver Aust said in an interview. Virgin will add 1,600 extra seats by switching to larger aircraft on flights to New York, Washington, Boston and Delhi in India.

The travel plans of almost 1 million people face disruption after the strike vote by British Airways’ 13,500 cabin crew. During the action, scheduled to run from Dec. 22 through Jan. 2, EasyJet has 160,000 seats still available on routes where it competes directly with BA, Aust said. Collins Stewart analyst Andrew Fitchie said forward sales will also be affected.

“You could reasonably expect January bookings to be affected as prospective travellers will perceive risk of further disruption,” Fitchie said. “This is likely to lead to a significant windfall for EasyJet, its closest competitor.”

British Airways said today it will seek an injunction to stop the strike going ahead after Unite failed to respond to letters highlighting what the London-based company described as “irregularities” in the ballot.

Long-Haul Focus

Managers at the carrier are meanwhile establishing which flight attendants are prepared to work normally during the walkout, BA said in a statement. While it didn’t comment on the routes it might seek to operate, network airlines faced with disruption typically focus on long-haul services at the expense of short-haul ones, a factor that may also favour EasyJet.

Sales at Luton, England-based EasyJet, Europe’s second- biggest discount airline, may receive a one-time boost of as much as 60 million pounds if it fills 10 percent more seats during December and January, Fitchie said, based on ticket prices of between 100 pounds to 150 pounds. Extra costs will be low, leading to a “very material benefit” to earnings.

Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe’s No. 1 low-cost carrier, may also benefit, he said, together with full-service airlines Air France-KLM Group and Deutsche Lufthansa AG and British discount operator Flybe, which is adding six flights from London to the Channel Island of Jersey between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2.

Virgin Switch

U.K. billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic will increase capacity on four routes by switching to Airbus SAS A340-600 jetliners from smaller A340-300s. The airline is BA’s biggest competitor on long-haul flights.

Seat occupancy at EasyJet had been expected to rise to about 85 percent over the Christmas period from the current 75 percent even before the impact of the industrial action at BA, Aust said, and the low-cost carrier is looking at adding flights on a “tactical level” to cope with additional bookings.

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