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.

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]

The Great British Pub is an ailing, sickly thing. Pubs are dropping like brides’ nighties leaving us faced with a wall of chain pubs and their fart-smelling pints. The latest figure is that 52 boozers are closing every week.

As our locals shut up shop, we find ourselves increasingly likely to stay in our homes getting rat-arsed, smoking tabs on the flammable couch and pretending to talk to strangers when we go for a slash and standing in our gardens throwing wild punches at an imagined adversary who fingered our girlfriend’s pint.

And things could get a whole lot worse.

You see, pubs are getting priced out of the game and thousands of landlords are set to vote on whether to take industrial action in protest at the amount they must pay in overheads.

Over half of Britain’s pubs are owned by large pub firms – pubcos – and the GMB union says they require landlords to buy beer at a premium rate, as well as being asked to cough up for an up-front fee to and over-the-odds rent.

Apparently, there’s around 25,000 landlords in the UK who run ‘tied pubs’, which are rented from one of seven large property companies who also sell them beer. GMB reckons that the pubs are being charged up to double the wholesale price of beer available on the open market and makes demands of £12,000 of the annual cut in wholesale payments for each pub.

Industrial action looks inevitable but as yet, is not clear in what shape it will take. Should the staff and landlords decide to picket across the doors of their pubs, we could well see pubco reps backed by policemen with their numbers covered taking swipes at busty barmaids whilst alcoholics openly weep stage left as Billy Bragg strikes up a tuneless protest song.

Or, it could be a good time to start getting hammered on cheap ale.

GMB national officer Paul Maloney said: “If members vote for action, pubs will lower prices to customers during the dispute. The aim of the action by the tied tenants is to secure negotiation with pubcos to achieve very substantial cuts in wholesale prices and a resolution to a wide range of grievances experienced by the tied tenants at the hands of the pubcos’ middle managers and their agents.”

MPs from the Business and Enterprise Select Committee have called for the Competition Commission to investigate arrangements that oblige pub tenants to take beer supplies only from their landlords.

[BBC]

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.

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…