Brexit сhaos not enough? British Airways roasted as pilots’ strike ruins 100,000 trips worldwide

British Airways canceled nearly all its flights on Monday due to a massive strike action by pilots, raising the ire of a growing cohort of passengers that found themselves grounded and angry after being told not to go to airports.

The strike over pilots’ wages was triggered by flight crew who belong to the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa). Pilots have gone on strike for 48 hours, forcing BA to cancel almost all of the airline’s 1,700 flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on Monday and Tuesday, causing travel chaos for tens of thousands of passengers.

Grounded British Airways planes sit on the tarmac at Heathrow airport Terminal 5 in west London © AFP / Ben Stansall

UK media are reporting that it’s the “biggest” walkout of its flight crew in the airline’s history.

Around 200,000 passengers have been dealt a severe travel headache with many desperately seeking alternative flights. Many check-in desks around the country were empty, with Heathrow Terminal 5, a main hub for BA, a ghost town, after the airline told passengers not to bother turning up for their flights.

The strike not only dramatically stalled BA’s global operations but also ignited fury online, with flocks of passengers complaining about missed flights and lost money.

Many took to BA’s official Twitter page to voice anger over the way the UK’s flag carrier handled the situation, reminding the airline that a formal apology doesn’t help.

There was no shortage of angry netizens vowing to never fly British Airways again.

One person tweeted that they received a flight cancellation message just one hour before their scheduled departure from London City airport.

Others directed their anger at pilots who “get paid too much.”

However, there were those who saw the funny side to the shutdown, with one person tweeting a video of a BA plane taking off from a UK airport and joking: “this must be one of their new #selfFly planes.”

Despite pilots from abroad not being entitled to strike, BA cancelled more than 50 Sunday night intercontinental flights to Heathrow. The airline is set to lose up to £100m on the first two days of Balpa’s planned strikes.

The messy strike comes several weeks after BA’s online check-in system went down, leading to hundreds of flights being delayed and thousands of beleaguered travelers left stranded at UK airports. At the time, passengers called British Airways a “disaster company” and described its service as “disgusting.”

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