British Airways CEO, Willie Walsh, has reassured customers that a strike will not ground the airline.

Walsh released a statement to customers saying that although the Unite Union has not announced strike dates yet, the airline has set up contingency plans should a strike be called.

Unite has until March 15 to inform the airline of a strike and cannot strike without seven days’ notice to British Airways.

“We have been putting plans into place and although we cannot announce the precise schedule we will operate until we know for sure what Unite would do.”

“A strike will not ground British Airways. We have had nearly 6 000 volunteers in total to support our flying programme and the number is growing.”

In the event of a strike the airline will operate as follows:

• All London City flights, including London City – New York
• All Gatwick longhaul flights and 50% of Gatwick shorthaul flights
• At Heathrow the airline will operate a substantial proportion of its longhaul programme and a good number of shorthaul flights too,       assisted by chartered aircraft with crews from a number of UK and European-based airlines.

Walsh continued to say that the airline has at least 23 aircraft available to them over an extended period.

He reiterated that talks with Unite are still ongoing and that the airline wishes to resolve the issue.