London, March 27: British Airways said 66 per cent of all its cabin crew staff went to work yesterday despite a four-day walkout being staged by the Unite union.
Air passengers had to cope with more travel disruption as cabin crew took to picket lines once again.
But the airline said 96 per cent of staff turned up to work at London’s Gatwick airport.
There was a turnout of 61 per cent of staff for Heathrow longhaul flights and 56 percent for Heathrow shorthaul flights.
The strike follows a dispute between the Unite union and BA bosses over jobs and cost cutting.
This is the second round of strikes from BA staff this month.
The airline said it would fly around 180,000 of the 240,000 customers booked to travel during the strike period, which runs until Tuesday.
BA also said that 18 per cent of its customers had been re-booked to travel on different airlines, or had changed the dates of their flights to avoid the strike period.
Unite warned that the seven-day dispute will cost the airline around £100 million ($149 million), but BA has estimated it will cost about half that.
The airline said it will operate 70 per cent of longhaul flights from Heathrow, and 55 percent of shorthaul flights.
It said that it would fly a full, normal schedule from Gatwick and London City airports.
—Agencies