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Bother at BA, boom in Kazakhstan - 29 January 2007

***STOP PRESS*** The planned 48-hour strike by BA staff has now been called off, following an agreement being reached between the airline and unions. Lengthy talks, which continued throughout the weekend, and the determined efforts of both sides, have led to the resolution of the issues behind the proposed strike action. BA will now attempt to reinstate as many flights as possible.

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    Travellers and airline bosses alike are bracing themselves for the possibility of major disruption this week as a 48-hour walkout over sickness absence, pay and staffing levels at British Airways threatens to force huge cancellations.

    Talks are continuing on Monday in a concerted effort by both sides to avoid the strike, while BA has already cancelled the whole of its outbound programme from Heathrow, as well as all domestic and European flights from Gatwick, for the duration of the industrial action.

    Both the airline and the Transport and General Workers Union are working to reach agreement to avoid the strike, with talks being led personally by BA chief executive Willie Walsh continuing over the weekend, and due to resume just hours before the proposed start of the action.

    Accusations in the Mail on Sunday that BA was offering cash sweeteners to those employees prepared to break the strike were refuted by the airline, saying they were offering normal expenses for taxi fares to non-union staff who wanted to avoid picket lines.

    The BBC has reported that BA sent an email to customers booked on flights on the days of the strike to say that flights would be severely affected, but that it was ‘committed to finding a resolution’ to the dispute. If talks fail, further strikes are proposed for the 5th-7th February and 12th-14th February.

    Once staff return to work, they may find that there is a sudden rush on their flights to Almaty, Kazakhstan. A recent poll of 2,800 gap year students and long-term travelers across the world has put the former Soviet republic third in a list of European countries they want to visit, ahead of Spain, France and Greece. The country has unwittingly been thrown into the spotlight in the past few months by Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Borat about a fictional TV reporter from the state.

    Italy was the most popular destination in the www.travellersconnected.com survey, followed by the UK and Kazakhstan.

    National airline Air Astana has now introduced a third scheduled weekly flight into Almaty from London to cope with demand, reports TravelMole. Could a boutique apartment in Almaty old town, or a frontline apartment on the Caspian Sea be the ‘next big thing’ in overseas property?

     


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