easyJet is the most popular airline in the UK, ladies and gentlemen. That’s according to this just in – from easyJet. The press release also refers to easyJet as the ‘UK’s national airline’, no doubt an example of calculated posturing amongst the strike turmoil for flag-bearing British Airways.

According to the figures provided by the Civil Aviation Authority, in 2009 easyJet carried 28,147,268 passengers – ’significantly more than any other airline’ according to the press release. Except it isn’t really, at least not according to the same set of figures which show Ryanair in second place with 28,095,201 UK passengers. That’s a difference of 52,067 passengers, or less than 0.2 per cent – hardly a difference that can be described as significant.

The press release puts British Airways is third with 26,274,056 passengers carried in 2009, although that figure is adjusted to strip out journeys made by transfer passengers. After that, there’s fresh air between BA and fourth place BMI (6.8 million) and fifth place FlyBe (6.75 million).

Interestingly, easyJet deliberately avoids describing themselves as ‘the UK’s favourite airline’; the press release uses the terms ‘the UK’s national airline’ and ‘the UK’s most popular airline‘. Of course Ryanair refers to itself as ‘Britain’s favourite airline’, thus opening of another can of ambiguous worms; favourite isn’t the same as popular, while Britain isn’t the same as the UK.

It’s all ammunition for the upcoming airline dogfight that’s intensifying between easyJet and Ryanair; after challenging the airline’s Stelios Haji-Ioannou to an idiotic ‘Sumo Smackdown’ in Trafalgar Square, Sky Marshall O’Leary is now blowing air out his hole about easyJet’s refusal to publish punctuality figures for its services. O’Leary might have a point, but what kind of businessman puts his name to a press release like this?

“Stelios has so far failed to take up Ryanair’s challenge of a race around Trafalgar Square, or a wheelbarrow race, or even a sumo wrestling bout where Stelios’ obvious talents would give him a significant advantage…”

“Stelios obviously can’t run, but he can’t hide either.”

HE’S FAT, WE GET IT, MICHAEL. Bravo to you, sir, for taking the piss out of people for being overweight – a courageous move, for sure. Sadly, it’s difficult to care much when you yourself come across as an appallingly offensive jumped-up shit of a man.

For all their crowing, the budget airlines have had an easier time of the recession than others. But despite the likes of easyJet and Ryanair increasing passenger numbers in the past twelve months, UK airports have suffered the biggest decline in passenger numbers since records began in the 1940s, dropping over seven percent in 2009.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, London City handled 14 per cent fewer passengers, and both Stansted and Luton saw a drop of over 10 per cent. Heathrow’s passengers numbers decreased by 1.5 per cent, Gatwick by just over five per cent, while Manchester’s passenger numbers nosedived by nearly 12 per cent compared to numbers in 2008. The only silver lining is that the bulk of the loss was in the first half of last year.

Airlines battle for UK passengers, yesterday (artist's impression)

Meanwhile, British Airways is this afternoon expected to roll details for operations during the upcoming strikes by cabin crew. The airline is expecting to operate roughly 70 per cent of all scheduled flights, with most cancellations likely to be domestic and short haul, as BA attempts to protect its precious long haul custom. It’s expected that at least 23 aircraft will operate with replacement crews made up of other BA staff. Rumours that Gordon Brown will be passing through the cabin with a selection of snacks and beverages are entirely fictitious, although the Prime Minister seems keen to dirty his hands in the business of the loss-making airline.

Finally, after months of foreplay with British Airways, Unite finally look like they’re going to get it on. The union, which represents many of the airline’s staff, has called a press conference for later this morning. While not confirmed yet, it’s thought that union representatives will announce formal strike action. Unite has to announce any intended action by this Monday, and British Airways have not announced any breakthrough in negotiations, so it’s looking very likely.

Unite has been squaring up to the airline for months, over changes to working conditions for longhaul cabin crew. After the threat of Christmas strikes passed without incident, they now have a legal ballot behind them and can give seven day’s notice before taking strike action. According to the BBC, Unite have promised not to strike over the Easter holidays – the first two to three weeks of Easter. That means if industrial action is announced today, it may curtail BA flights from next Friday (19th) through to the end of the month.

If strikes go ahead, British Airways will continue to operate some flights. If has trained 1,000 volunteers as cabin crew to act as replacements (christ, it’ll be like Celebair, but with cabin crew who are somehow less well known), and is considering hiring in staff from other airlines. BA has stated flights from London City Airport will not be affected, and that over two thirds of flights from Gatwick should run to schedule. No guarantees can be made about any routes operating out of Heathrow until the strike is declared.

Industrial action is likely to take its toll on domestic and shorthaul flights first – the public line is that there are more travel options available to passengers travelling shorter distances, but BA won’t want to lose loyal longhaul custom to their competitors. If you are booked on board a BA flight that is likely to be affected, you can find out what your options are on the British Airways website.

UPDATE: From Unite’s official statement:

“Strikes are planned for March 20, 21 and 22 and further on March 27, 28, 29 and 30. There will be no strikes over the Easter period, as we already promised, but further industrial action will be called to take place after April 14 if the dispute has not been resolved.”

British Airways has already begun posting details of affected flights on its website.

Who’d want to get on a plane this week, eh? Europe is screeeewed. Getting around isn’t too easy as thousands of pilots, air traffic controllers and cabin crew conspire to ruin your day. What’s going on, then? And will you still be leaving on a jet plane later in the week?

Yesterday, 4,000 pilots at German airline Lufthansa began four days of strikes – the good news is that the action was called off after a day. The bad news? Flights are likely to remain affected until Friday. For further information on affected flights, Lufthansa has made their adhoc schedules available online.

Meanwhile French air traffic controllers today began a four day strike – no real reason, they just enjoy it – meaning hundreds of flights in and out of Paris are severely delayed or cancelled. Airlines have cut half of services at Orly airport and a quarter at Charles de Gaulle, and easyJet - one of France’s major operators – has also been forced to cut flights in and out of Lyon. You can check to see whether your flight is affected through the easyJet flight schedules.

And then the news that after plenty of huffing and puffing at Christmas, over four fifths of British Airways cabin crew have once again voted to strike. So what does this mean if you’ve booked up to travel with BA? At the moment, absolutely nothing – while the union Unite now have the ability to legally strike, they’ve announced they won’t decide on when to take action until they’ve held further talks with BA’s management.

According to the BBC, Unite have also announced there will be no strikes over Easter – presumably their experience at Christmas taught the union that striking at times of peak travel only sours public support.

British Airways are on “a cyberspace witch-hunt” according to some (not us… why would we say such a thing?) after they suspended 15 cabin crew members. What for? Well, BA said it had acted over “inappropriate postings” made on the website of union Unite, adding it would not tolerate “intimidation of staff”.

But wait! Unite are saying that this isn’t the case at all! While Unite are balloting 13,000 BA staff on strike action, they reckon that these (alleged) comments were made on Facebook and not on their website.

British Airways are saying that they came across a chatroom on the Unite union’s website and deemed the language in some of the comments to amount to intimidation. Is this a case of people getting their personal privacy compromised? How about that for easing the relations between the two in crunch talks – talks that have reportedly become an increasingly bitter and fraught scrap.

You see, it’s all because BA want to make rather large changes in the terms and conditions of its staff. For starters, they want three quarters of its crew to accept pay rises of 2-7% followed by a pay freeze but at the same time, wants 3,000 staff to switch to part-time working, along with a reduction in onboard crewing levels to 14 from 15 on long-haul flights from London’s Heathrow airport.

These all seem like pissy little things from the outside looking in… but y’know, I’m sure it’s all rather justified. Either way, it’s all kicking off and shit is being slung from both sides. It might be worth booking flights with absolutely any other company until they get all this sorted out.

The verdict is due on February 22 and if industrial action does go ahead it will be on March 1.

[Beeb]

Yes, the world has officially gone horse-shit mad. As if it wasn’t bad enough that men with bombs in their undercrackers want to blow planes up, or that governments around the world have capitulated in fear and heaped more security on passengers, but now passengers themselves can decide what level of security is acceptable.

A London-bound British Airways plane was delayed earlier following a customer complaint about poor airport security. The plane was searched thoroughly after all passengers on the aircraft disembarked to go through security again at Abu Dhabi airport.

The reason? A female passenger had reportedly told the captain she was unhappy with the level of airport security. According to another passenger, the woman went to the captain and informed him the member of staff responsible for viewing the x-rays screens was paying no attention while talking on his mobile phone. British Airways has only confirmed that customers were asked to disembark to complete secondary security checks in Abu Dhabi.

[PA]

Hats off to Ryanair for not only jumping on a British Airways initiative, but making it sound like a genuine benefit to passengers. The budget airline is to display third party advertising on its boarding cards from early 2010 – a move British Airways announced in August.

Now there’s nothing necessarily wrong with whoring white space on boarding passes for money. It creates another revenue stream and doesn’t cause passengers any ills – we’re already exposed to hundreds of advertising messages a day so another makes no odds. Ryanair has seen an idea, liked it and copied it and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t. But don’t pretend we’ll enjoy it – that’s just taking the piss:

This will allow advertisers to reach the 66 million Ryanair passengers that will print their boarding cards from the comfort of their own home next year.

That’s right – not only has Ryanair handed over the cost of producing boarding cards to the customer, but they’ve also passed on their advertiser’s production costs too – and it’s all for you to enjoy “in the comfort of your own home”. It’s surprising that Ryanair didn’t announce an additional tax for any lack of dissatisfaction achieved during the printing process. Cheers, Sky Marshall!

From bbc.co.uk:

A strike by British Airways cabin crew planned for Christmas has been declared illegal in a High Court ruling.

The court agreed with BA that the cabin crew’s union, Unite, had not correctly balloted its members on the strike action.

The injunction means that the 12-day strike cannot now go ahead.

Unite called it “a disgraceful day for democracy” and vowed to hold a fresh ballot of cabin crew if the dispute with BA was not resolved.

[BBC]

Commenting on the BA website, a statement from the airline read:

In recent days, we believe Unite has formed a better understanding of our position and of the ways in which we could move forward. It has also become very clear that our customers do not believe that old-style trade union militancy is relevant to our efforts to move British Airways back toward profitability. Financial success is essential to build the kind of business our customers want and provide long-term opportunities for our staff.

We’ve been critical of British Airways management since the day Bitterwallet was born, but you’ll have noticed we’re not hugely enamoured by union Unite holding their twelve day cabin crew strike over Christmas and new year. When the company is in nine figures of debt, taking sustained industrial action at the time of year that’ll do most harm to both its revenue and public image doesn’t seem a particularly clever way of securing jobs for the future.

According to the press, it seems there are members of the union feeling the same; the London Evening Standard reports that staff members are voicing their concerns on a private website called BASSA (British Airlines Stewards and Stewardessess Association) which is operated by Unite. Quotes from BA staff members include:

“I understand the need to act now and show our resolve asap, but I and many others I have spoken to today really believe the Christmas dates are not doing us any favours for the cause. I am seriously thinking January would have been better. The public backlash is already enormous… I am always with the union, but I have a horrible feeling they may have got this one wrong.”

And:

“Twelve days over the Christmas period was a step too far. I certainly wasn’t aware that in voting to strike it would be 12 days and have to say I was shocked. I will of course fulfil my decision to strike but I feel physically sick at the thought.”

Meanwhile the Daily Mail has sharpened its pitchfork and lit the torches in a bid to fan the flames of dissent amongst BA customers, by claiming key union figures spend their time living in Los Angeles and running kitchen businesses during their rest days. Burn the witch! Then drown the witch! Baying mob, please form an orderly queue here.

Something smells fishy according to British Airways, and it’s not the cod in white wine sauce on the Economy menu. With 12 days of scheduled flights in peril after members of union UNITE decided to strike over pay freezes and redundancies, the airline is attempting to prevent the action going ahead by serving papers on the union. The reason? BA are citing “irregularities” in the initial strike ballot:

We are commencing legal action in an attempt to protect customers from the massive stress and disruption threatened by Unite’s decision to call a 12-day strike from December 22.

We have today written to Unite, highlighting irregularities in the union’s strike ballot, which we believe renders the ballot invalid.

The airline called on Unite to call off the industrial action by 2pm today, 15 December 2009. The union has not done so and British Airways is now seeking an injunction to prevent the strike going ahead.

Today’s letter was the third sent to Unite, pointing out the balloting flaws, since last Friday. The union did not reply to the first two letters.

BA say they’re attempting to determine which staff will work through the strike if it goes ahead. If you’re booked for a flight due to depart on a date that may be affected by strike action or 48 hours either side, you can find out more about your options on the BA website.

By the way, if you’re wondering how a group of several thousand employees react when presented with the opportunity to ruin the Christmas plans of millions, this video was anonymously posted on YouTube today – it was shot during the union meeting when the ballot figures were announced (that moment of crushing realisation for BA staff occurs at 1′ 05″):

Finally, there’s always somebody who spots an opportunity at in a time of crisis:

[MobyPic]

The Twelve Days Of Christmas has just taken on a horrible new meaning if you’re a British Airways passenger who is planning to fly anywhere over the holiday period. That’s because the airline’s staff have voted overwhelmingly in favour of twelve days of strikes beginning on December 22^nd.

The strikes follow a long-running dispute, with staff firmly against a whole host of cost-cutting measures by BA that have included job cuts, wage freezes and changes to working practices. 92.5 per cent of BA staff have voted in favour of the Christmas strikes.

Unless further talks prove to be constructive and the strikes are averted, passengers won’t be getting turtle doves, golden eggs or ladies dancing. Instead they can expect cancelled flights, severe delays, emergency hotel stays and a diet of overpriced airport food. They might even grow long beards and start dressing in rags like Tom Hanks in The Terminal.

Actually, that was Castaway wasn’t it?

LATEST: British Airways have announced that they are in the process of making contingency plans for flights scheduled during the strike period – all relevant customer information will appear on this page of their website.

Flown with British Airways recently? Your credit card details could be in the hands of criminals, according to The Daily Mirror. The newspaper claims anyone who booked a BA flight via their German telesales centre in the last year is at risk, and that many victims had their details accessed immediately after booking a flight. A police raid on Flyline, British Airways’ booking centre in Bremen which employs 300 staff has “unearthed significant fraudulent activity”. A team leader there has been arrested and dismissed by BA, and a second German colleague has been suspended.

It’s alleged that lists of hundreds of BA passengers’ credit card details were found in the desks of staff – one person is said to have already confessed to using the details for cloning fake cards. According to The Mirror, there is also evidence of fraud involving refunds, re-issuing tickets and frequent flyer accounts. A BA spokesman told the paper last night: “This is subject to a current German police investigation so it would be inappropriate to comment.”

The news has only broken in the past hour – we’ve spoke to British Airways this morning, and they’ve promised to update us shortly on what to do if you’re concerned your details may have been stolen.

[The Daily Mirror]

In 1978, Ipswich Town signed two Dutch midfielders, Frans Thijssen and Arnold Muhren. The floodgates were opened, foreign players subsequently flooded English football and the game was never the same again. In fact, it got considerably better.

In 2010, British Airways and Spain’s Iberia airline are hoping to merge, with BA taking a majority 55% share in the new company and Iberia holding the rest. The merger will have to be approved by the European Commission. But will it change traditional British commercial aviation forever? The only difference we envisage is that travellers to Spain will be able to get sombreros and straw donkeys for their outbound flight as well as their return one.

BA’s head honcho ‘Papa’ Willie Walsh trilled: “The merger will create a strong European airline well able to compete in the 21st Century. Both airlines will retain their brands and heritage while achieving significant synergies as a combined force.” Note the use of the word ‘synergies’ there.  Excellent stuff. The synergy should be effortless as both airlines are making losses and are involved in bitter disputes with their staff, with strike action imminent.

Things are going from bad to worse for beleaguered premium sky-flyists British Airways. Formerly the pride of the heavens, they are quickly becoming a byword for failure and mismanagement and have just announced a £292 million loss before tax for the first half of the year. In the same period last year, they made a £52 million profit.

The timing of the announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time as relations between BA management and staff are at an all time low. Yesterday, the Unite union launched High Court action to try and prevent BA from bringing in new contracts for cabin crew and a forthcoming court case will decide the legality of the move.

The threat of Christmas strikes still hangs over BA as well, with the result of a strike ballot of cabin staff due to be announced on December 14^th

None of that’s good news at all is it? God, hope it’s not going to be one of THOSE days…

If you’re planning to fly abroad at Christmas, it may be worth avoiding British Airways for the time being. After a lengthy catalogue of cutbacks in service, desperate measures and record losses, the airline’s disastrous year could be crowned with a series of strikes during the festive holidays, leaving passengers well and truly screwed.

Cabin crew and union representatives are meeting today to discuss the possibility of strike action, following nine months of negotiations with BA. The changes proposed by the airline include pay freezes for two years and reducing the number of cabin crew on long-haul flights from Heathrow. BA are hoping that 1,000 staff will request voluntary redundancy and more than 3,000 will request having their roles reduced to part-time hours. In a recession. Gotcha.

The results of the ballot on possible strike action is set to be announced on December 14th; since unions must give seven days notice of industrial action, it could mean BA flights are suspended before and after Christmas.