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British Airways has avoided a damaging summer strike after agreeing a “vastly improved” pay deal, according to unions, a boost to the airline that has been forced to cancel thousands of flights this year. The Unite union on Thursday said a dispute affecting check-in staff at London’s Heathrow airport “has been suspended” after the company made a new offer on pay. Staff will instead be balloted on the sweetened pay deal. “We welcome that BA has finally listened to the voice of its check-in staff. Unite has repeatedly warned that pay disputes at BA were inevitable unless the company took our members’ legitimate grievances seriously,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. The GMB union, whose members were also set to strike, has agreed a deal with BA, according to a union official. About 700 BA check-in crew at Heathrow had voted to strike last month, with unions promising “severe disruption” timed to coincide with the summer rush to fly abroad. Unite said the pay offer from BA was “vastly improved” without disclosing further details. The union had demanded that pay be reinstated to its pre-pandemic level, following a 10 per cent cut imposed by BA when the industry was all but shut down by Covid-19 travel restrictions. The airline said it was “very pleased” with the outcome, which came a day after it announced plans to cut another 10,300 flights this summer owing to staff shortages, taking the total number of cancellations this year to about 30,000. BA was under extreme pressure to avoid a strike that could have thrown its operations into chaos on one of the busiest weekends of the year for travel, as schools break up for the summer.<br/>

Qatar Airways has indicated that a provisional agreement to buy up to 50 Boeing 737 MAX jets has lapsed, Boeing's rival Airbus said in a court document released on Thursday. The deal, signed in Washington in January, is part of a series of inter-locking agreements caught up in a London court dispute between Airbus and the Gulf carrier over a larger jet. Airbus requested a copy of the Boeing 737 MAX agreement after the airline brought it up as part of its bid for compensation for damage to the A350, now worth $1.4b. Qatar Airways initially resisted the request on the grounds that the provisional Boeing deal had now "expired", Airbus said in a summary of arguments presented ahead of a UK court hearing. Qatar Airways, whose own preparatory written arguments made no reference to the Boeing deal, had no immediate comment. Boeing declined comment on discussions with airline customers. A redacted version of the Boeing agreement is likely to be shared with Airbus, people familiar with the case said following a procedural hearing on Thursday.<br/>