BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, – With a planned strike by British Airways (BA) just two days away, the airline has sought to give the assurance that contingency plans have been put in place to prevent disruption in travel to the Caribbean. But already one regional destination has been told it will experience fallout.
The three-day strike action by BA’s cabin crew in the UK, over changes to pay and staffing levels imposed by the airline last November, is set to begin on Saturday, and has resulted in Sunday’s flight from the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) to London being cancelled. If a second strike goes ahead as planned next weekend, the flight scheduled for the following Sunday is also at risk of being axed.
The situation has left scores of travellers unsure when they will be able to return home.
The TCI was one of three Caribbean destinations which BA had told the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) it was considering options for, in light of the planned industrial action. The others were the Bahamas and Cayman Islands.
1.4 million tourists come to the region from the UK every year.
The CTO this week issued a release saying that although it was concerned about the impact the dispute between BA and the Unite – the union representing the cabin crew – would have on travel to and from the region, it was “encouraged by BA’s responsiveness to the Caribbean and by the contingency plans the airline has instituted to protect the business”.
“BA has assured CTO that it has robust contingency plans in place and that flights to the Caribbean are not expected to be disrupted by the pending strike,” the CTO statement said, indicating that while BA’s plans for the other three destinations had not been finalised, flights to and from Antigua, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, St Kitts, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago were expected to operate as normal.
“It has also assured CTO that it will do all that it can to protect the travel plans of its customers to the entire region,” it added.
Despite the assurances, tourism officials in the region are keeping a close eye on the situation.
BA that claims up to 1,000 employees have offered to stand in for those who strike and it expects that number to rise further. It says it will be able to fly 65 percent of passengers during the action, while thousands will also be offered seats on alternate flights on BA or other airlines.
But BA’s employees are getting support from a growing number of unions representing workers at airports around the world.
Unions representing ground staff in the United States, France and Germany have pledged their solidarity for the strike.
Cancellation of flights to and from Caribbean countries would deliver a blow to the tourism industry. The UK is an important market, with 1.4 million tourists coming to the region from the UK every year. That represents 25 per cent of all European arrivals, and six per cent of total arrivals.
Many CTO member-countries are highly dependent on that market. According to figures from the CTO, 39 percent of tourist arrivals to Barbados are from the UK, Antigua (34%), Montserrat (29%) Grenada (28%), St Lucia (29%), St Vincent and the Grenadines (18%), Bermuda (11%) and Jamaica (11%).
