British Airways (BA) and the British Air Line Pilots Association (Balpa) will begin conciliatory talks with an independent third party ”within seven days” in an attempt to resolve a dispute regarding recruitment for the carrier”s OpenSkies subsidiary.
Yesterday (21 February) 3,000 Balpa members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strikes, but ”positive” emergency talks were held following the ballot result at which both sides ”expressed a strong desire to achieve a peaceful outcome”, it was revealed in a joint statement.
BA CEO Willie Walsh said: ”We welcome the progress made today and are confident that a settlement can be achieved through conciliation which will protect our customers from the possibility of disruption.
”We are proud of the professionalism and high reputation of our pilots and have never sought conflict with them.”
And a Balpa spokesman told ABTN that although the Association had been disappointed when BA walked away from the original negotiations, it was now pleased of having a chance to ”get back on track.”
Balpa general secretary Jim McAuslan said: ”The ballot result shows the strength of feeling of our members about the implications of the creation of OpenSkies.
”We have no quarrel with the travelling public and have always maintained that these issues could be resolved through negotiation rather than confrontation.”
A walkout by BA pilots could cause chaos for hundreds of thousands of passengers, and would provide the flag carrier with the worst possible build up to the opening of operations at its brand new ”4.3bn ($8.49bn) Terminal 5 at Heathrow at the end of March.
This would suggest the pilots have strong leverage in these talks, but their suggestion that the recruitment of new pilots on lower pay for the OpenSkies subsidiary would lead eventually to pay-cuts throughout the airline, was again firmly refuted by BA yesterday.
”We”ve guaranteed to Balpa that OpenSkies does not represent a threat to the terms and conditions of BA pilots,” a spokeswoman said. ”We”ve offered to make these guarantees part of the industrial agreement with pilots ” we”ve said that during talks with them.”
But a Balpa spokesman told ABTN: ”They”ve never done it ” we”ve had nothing in writing.”
The long haul subsidiary has been created to take advantage of the new ”Open Skies” agreement which liberalises transatlantic travel from March, when Air France, Delta, Northwest, and Continental will launch new routes.
Since 1977, there have been strict limitations on routes and the number of flights between the US and Europe, and BA will begin its first ever flights from Paris or Brussels to New York JFK in June with OpenSkies, with further routes to follow.