British Airways is set to avoid a damaging pilots’ strike after agreeing the outline of a pay deal following months of negotiations. The agreement brokered with the British Airline Pilots’ Association union includes a 4% pay rise for this year. “We are pleased to have agreed a pay proposal in principle with Balpa, which will now be put to members with a recommendation from the union,” BA said. The truce between senior executives at the airline and the union has in effect shut down the likelihood of a major pilots’ strike in the coming months. The news will come as a boost to BA, which has endured a difficult year of travel disruption and was forced to cut back its schedule over the summer because of staffing shortages. The package includes the end to a controversial pay deduction scheme agreed with Balpa in spring 2020 to avoid mass redundancies. The union has argued that the agreement forged in the heat of the pandemic should be cancelled now BA is making money again as passengers return to the skies. IAG, the airline’s parent company, has forecast an operating profit of about E1.2b for the three months to September, far exceeding analysts’ expectations. “Following long and difficult negotiations, Balpa has now negotiated an agreement in principle to remove this pay cut and deliver a pay increase in 2022, while paving the way for pay negotiations for 2023,” the union said. “This agreement will now be recommended to our members to accept,” it added. The carrier has also agreed to additional pay rises for pilots who were made redundant during the pandemic but have now returned. <br/>
oneworld
Qatar Airways has withdrawn flights from 18 destinations to make space at Hamad International Airport for airlines carrying fans to next month's soccer World Cup, the company's CEO said on Tuesday. Qatar Airways CE Akbar Al Baker said the priority now was to accommodate the hundreds of flights that will be landing in the country for the tournament. Qatar, which expects about 500 shuttle flights a day as well as hundreds more charter flights and private jets, will host the Nov. 20-Dec. 18 tournament with about 1.2m visitors. A total of 32 nations are taking part with matches spread across eight stadiums, located within 40 kilometres of central Doha. "Actually no, we don't have any new destinations," CE Akbar Al Baker told a news conference when asked whether the airline was now growing due to the World Cup. "Quite the contrary. We have reduced and withdrawn from 18 destinations in order to make space at Hamad international airport to bring fans."Our priority is not Qatar Airways' network but giving access to all countries participating and bringing in large numbers of passengers." He said German airline Lufthansa was considering restarting operations along with Air France and KLM. Hamad International Airport (HIA) COO Badr Mohammad Al Meer said hundreds of flights were scheduled to land daily for the tournament.<br/>