‘Biggest in history’: Strike forces BA to scrap almost all flights, chaos affects tens of thousands

Skies around the UK were a lot quieter on Monday morning after British Airways canceled nearly all its flights due to a pilots’ strike in what’s been called the ‘biggest shutdown in history.’

The strike over pilots’ wages was triggered by flight crew who belong to the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa). Pilots have gone on strike for 48 hours, forcing BA to cancel almost all of the airline’s 1,700 flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on Monday and Tuesday, causing travel chaos for tens of thousands of passengers.

UK media are reporting that it’s the “biggest” walkout of its flight crew in the airline’s history.

Around 200,000 passengers have been dealt a severe travel headache with many desperately seeking alternative flights. Many check-in desks around the country were empty, with Heathrow Terminal 5, a main hub for BA, a ghost town, after the airline told passengers not to bother turning up for their flights.

The worldwide picture showed a dramatic reduction in BA flights in operation.

Angry passengers voiced frustration at having their travel plans turned upside down with one person tweeting that they received a flight cancellation message just one hour before their scheduled departure from London City airport.

However, there were those who saw the funny side to the shutdown, with one person tweeting a video of a BA plane taking off from a UK airport and joking: “this must be one of their new #selfFly planes.”

Despite pilots from abroad not being entitled to strike, BA cancelled more than 50 Sunday night intercontinental flights to Heathrow. The airline is set to lose up to £100m on the first two days of Balpa’s planned strikes.

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