British Airways is offering cabin crew up to £225 per day in overtime payments to work on their rest days over the busy Christmas and New Year travel periods.
The airline is struggling with Omicron-induced staffing woes and is trying to persuade crew who aren’t sick to pick up additional trips to head off a possible wave of cancellations.
Issues first emerged at British Airways last weekend when the Heathrow-based airline started struggling to find enough crew to operate flights on Saturday morning. The problems escalated on Sunday as baggage handlers and ground workers were also sent into isolation.
Passengers say they were sent home from the airport without their luggage because there simply wasn’t anyone available to unload bags from arriving aircraft. At one point, more than 2,000 cases were stacked up and awaiting sorting, although some of those problems have now been resolved.
With even more crew expected to go sick in the coming days, British Airways is offering senior crewmembers £225 per day in overtime to work on their days off in addition to the usual allowances they would earn. Most other cabin crew could earn £150 per day in overtime payments.
