**Dozens of British Airways flights have so far been cancelled on the third day of strike action by cabin crew.**Heathrow has seen the greatest disruption, with 46 flights cancelled out of 101 departures scheduled between midnight and 1100 GMT on Monday.
The joint general secretary of Unite, Tony Woodley, said the strike was “costing the company a fortune”, with “hundreds of planes grounded”.
But BA said large numbers of cabin crew had reported for work.
Disruption at other airports appears to be less according to departure information shown on BA’s website, with Gatwick reporting five cancellations out of 28 scheduled departures on Monday morning.
Staffing claims
Both Manchester and Glasgow have seen four cancellations out of a total of 26 departures.
It is not clear what effect the strike has had on Monday’s arrivals, or how many more flights have been delayed.
BA and Unite dispute the numbers of staff who have reported for work since the strike began on Saturday.
The Unite union says only 300 of the 2,200 cabin crew scheduled to work during the weekend turned up.
But BA says nearly 98% of staff reported for work at Gatwick and more than half showed up at Heathrow.
“Its costing the company a fortune - hundreds of planes are grounded,” claimed Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, speaking to the BBC.
Speaking to union members later, Mr Woodley said a fresh offer recently put forward by British Airways had been rejected as “not good enough” for cabin crew, but said the union was still willing to negotiate.
A spokesman for Gordon Brown said that the prime minister has been keeping “very closely in touch” with the union.
Counting the cost
In a video posted on BA’s website and on YouTube, chief executive Willie Walsh said the atmosphere at Terminal 5 on Sunday was “very positive”, with “very good numbers” of cabin crew turning up for work.
The airline said more than 60% of customers flew on Sunday.
But the strike is still expected to cost the airline millions in lost revenues.
Speaking to the BBC, Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners, called the strike “very damaging both in the short-term and the long-term”, and said he expected BA to lose around £100m as a direct result of the industrial action.
But he added that losses would be much higher as a result of uncertainty over cancelled flights discouraging passengers from making bookings.
The strike action is the latest episode in a long-running dispute over changes to pay and conditions by BA that Unite claims are being unfairly imposed on its members.
Workers are particularly angry that last November BA reduced the number of crew on long-haul flights and is introducing a two-year pay freeze from 2010.
The airline also proposed new contracts with lower pay for fresh recruits.
BA suffered a loss before tax of £342m for the nine months to the end of December 2009 and says it needs to cut costs in order to survive.
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