BA train extra staff as cabin crew

"ghost flights" to help in staff training

March 2010

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British Airways have trained up an extra one thousand staff to act as cabin crew if a threatened strike goes ahead. The BA employees have been manning “ghost flights” to ensure they are properly trained and the airline have added flights from Heathrow to Cardiff and Glasgow to make sure the ground staff are experienced enough to serve customers.

The cabin crew are normally trained on scheduled services with paying customers but with a short time span the airline has used existing employees to act as customers. The airline is also running training flights from routine trips to its engineering bases in both Glasgow and Cardiff.

Unite, the union that represents cabin crew, are still in talks with BA over the planned strike action over a change in working practices and cuts in hours and pay. Although a date has not yet been finalised, Unite is confident that it is doing the best for its members who voted with a majority of 81% of votes cast to strike.

The union is sceptical about the plan to train its staff in time and points out that with over 650 flights a day using 12,000 cabin crew; it is unlikely to have enough time to train enough people to do the job correctly. BA have vowed to keep its long haul flights out of Gatwick and around 50% of its short haul flights still active.

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