Barbados Tourism Minister Richard Sealy

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Passengers travelling to and from the Caribbean were on Friday bracing for the effects of a strike by British Airways (BA) cabin crew after last-ditch talks failed to avert this weekend’s planned industrial action.

Regional tourism officials were also keeping their fingers crossed  that the pending action would not further setback the Caribbean’s bread and butter sector, still trying to recover after serious declines triggered by the global economic recession.

Barbados, which reported an 8.7 per cent decline in stay over arrivals last year and in the process saw its European business plummet by 12 per cent in 2009, remains hopeful of a turnaround even though its industry is still reeling from the impact of the international downturn.

The island’s tourism minister, Richard Sealy, is therefore not comforted by news of the collapse of talks between British Airways management and the Unite union that represents the airline workers.

“It is not at all what we want to hear,” he told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Friday after the two sides failed to reach an amicable deal in a row over proposed cuts at the airline.

However, Sealy said Barbados, which had started the year on a negative course in terms of its UK arrivals, remains “encouraged” by the fact that its forward bookings from April to December 2010 appear to be up.

“That is certainly light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the UK situation because for the first three months of the year, the decline actually continued in the face of the many, many challenges so all in all the news is not so good but at the same time we are doing everything to try to get us out of this.

“Really it is an unprecedented situation which Barbados as a destination has never had to confront in the past,” he told CMC.

A total 1,100 flights out of the 1,950 scheduled to operate during the three-day strike will be cancelled.

However, BA has assured that 65 per cent of passengers will reach their destinations.

The airline said long-haul flights operating out of Gatwick, where most services to the Caribbean originate, are expected to operate as normal. At Heathrow, 60 per cent of long-haul flights are also expected to take to the skies.

The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) is on record as saying that it is gravely concerned about future visitor numbers to the region, where BA flies in over a million visitors each year.  Of particular worry is the impact on destinations including, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and St. Lucia.

However, Sealy said that in the case of Barbados, there were no real cancellations to speak of for the moment.

He also said the island, which receives most of its European traffic via Gatwick, was in currently in discussion with two other airlines which would be in a position to pick up any slack if needed.

“We have a back up plan in place in the event that the Gatwick crew decides to go that route. Since before Christmas last year we have been talking to other UK partners to allow Barbados to cover itself in the event that the strike action affects the London-Barbados route,” Sealy said.

The UK Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said ministers in the Gordon Brown government remained in touch with the feuding parties in an effort to ward off the action.

“Thousands of passengers will be inconvenienced if the strike goes ahead and I am keen to ensure that we do all we can to resolve this dispute,” Khan said.

British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, said it was “deeply” regrettable that the union turned down a proposal on pay and working conditions.

“Tens of thousands of BA people stand ready to serve our passengers and BA will be flying and will continue to fly through these periods of industrial action,” Walsh said, insisting that cost-cutting measures have to be implemented at Britain’s flag carrier.

Unite’s general secretary, Tony Woodley, said however that the airline “ultimately wants to go to war with this union”.

“I am extremely disappointed for the travelling public and our members, but this union will now support our members, while remaining open for talks with the company. It is an absolute disgrace and an insult to our people that he (Walsh) tabled a deal that reduced the amount of pay on offer,” the union boss said.

“It is ridiculous to expect anyone to go to their membership with a worse offer,” he added.

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