About 70,000 grounded by British Airways strike

Reuters - Yahoo! News: "Wildcat strikes forced British Airways to cancel its flights at London's Heathrow airport for a second day on Friday, grounding some 70,000 passengers during the peak summer holiday season. BA suspended all of its flights until at least 1700 GMT, in a move which analysts said could cost Europe's No.3 airline tens of millions of pounds.

About 1,000 baggage handlers and other BA staff walked out on Thursday in support of workers sacked at a catering supplier. Around 100,000 passengers fly daily with BA during August, and about two-thirds of its flights, excluding franchises, use Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport.

Shares in BA, already suffering from record oil prices and competition from low-cost carriers, fell as much as 2.5 percent in early trade. At 1120 GMT, they were down 1.0 percent at 289 pence, among the biggest fallers on the FTSE-100 index. BA said it had found 4,000 hotel rooms for passengers stranded overnight and that 1,600 spent the night at the airport. Customers could rebook flights or be refunded, and were being offered free refreshments at Heathrow, Goodfellow said. Unofficial strikes in 2003 cost BA around 40 million pounds, and analysts said the firm was getting a reputation for letting down customers. BA said over 600 flights had been canceled since Thursday.

BA's relations with staff have been strained since the airline axed thousands of jobs in an industry downturn that followed the September 2001 attacks on the United States. The latest dispute was triggered by a long-running spat between the TGWU and loss-making Gate Gourmet, which is owned by U.S. private equity fund Texas Pacific.

Unions said Gate Gourmet staff were sacked after they walked out in protest at planned changes to pay and conditions. The company said its reforms were needed to safeguard its future. Gate Gourmet Chief Executive David Siegel said on Friday the firm was ready to talk to unions, but declined to say whether a meeting had been scheduled. The TGWU declined to comment. "