British Airways Hires Charter Crews

British Airways canceled hundreds of flights Thursday, but pushed through the second day of a flight attendants’ strike with help from charter jets and crews from other carriers.

“You can call them strike-busters - we call them a way to get customers from A to B, and customers are our priority,” British Airways spokesman Jamie Bowden said.

With many of its own jets idled at London’s Heathrow Airport, British Airways called in 10 outside airplanes from charter operators and the British Airways German subsidiary, Deutsche BA, Bowden said.

Those crew members ended up crossing the picket lines as British Airways sought to salvage as much of its business as possible.

Tens of thousands of passengers have been stranded by the strike, which was called over a pay dispute and scheduled for three days, ending early Saturday.

TransAer, an Irish charter carrier, operated at least one of the jets that helped British Airways fight back.

“There is a lot of sympathy for the BA cabin crew,” said George Baczkowski, a TransAer captain who had just flown a round trip to Geneva. “But it is not our dispute and at the end of the day the passenger comes first.”

Baczkowski is a member of the British Airline Pilots Association, but that union had not told members to honor the picket lines, he said.

The British Airways operations manager, Michael Street, told a news conference that “we have chartered everything we possibly could” and would have brought in more airplanes if possible.

The top official at the flight attendants union, George Ryde, played down the impact of the chartered airplanes, saying the walkout had received “solid support” from the British Airways workers.

The 8,500-member British Association of Stewards and Stewardesses Association is striking over a pay offer that union leaders say would hurt the workers economically.

The company has offered a higher base pay, but wants to impose work rules the union contends would lower flight attendants’ overall compensation.

British Airways has vowed to keep increasing the number of flights it operates during the strike.