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British Airways will use Qatar Airways planes and crew to fly all its passengers to their destinations during a planned 2-week strike by some cabin crew, Willie Walsh, head of IAG, said Thursday. The strike by BA’s mixed fleet cabin crew - those who work on both long and short-haul flights - is due to begin Saturday. BA had already applied to Britain’s CAA to use 9 Qatar-registered Airbus A320 or A321s between July 1 and July 16 and Walsh said the plan would go ahead. “I’ll be pleased to say that those airplanes will fly and all of the British Airways passengers who are booked to fly with us over the next couple of weeks will be flying,” Walsh said when asked if the application to use the planes had been successful. The CAA would not confirm that BA’s application had been approved and said it was still processing it. <br/>

Artificial intelligence (AI), virtualisation and natural language are among the technology areas that will grow in importance for the airline industry, an IAG executive predicts. IAG director of strategy, Robert Boyle, said digital has gone from being novel to normal. “Customers want everything and they want it now. The average time before they click or swipe away, if they are not given what they want, is 8 seconds,” he said. Boyle predicted an increased role for AI, where machines can think and act on their own, or on your behalf. He also believes there is a role for virtualisation in the passenger experience. “Virtual reality is finally making it out of the lab to be a thing that works and is getting affordable,” he said. “People can try the travel experience before they buy, which has never been done before.” <br/>