Talks resume to resolve BA dispute

Talks resumed yesterday to try to resolve a dispute at the catering supplier to British Airways which triggered a wider walkout of airline staff and threw the country's flagship carrier into chaos.

British Airways said 85 per cent of scheduled short-haul flights and 80 per cent of long-haul flights from Heathrow Airport were operating yesterday after it cancelled more than 700 flights in past days following wildcat strikes.

But BA said it would take days before services returned to normal at the world's busiest international hub.

"The long-haul operation is expected to take a little longer (to normalise), due to the complex logistics in rebuilding the schedule," a BA spokesman said. "We expect most people will have travelled by the middle of the week."

Some 1,000 BA staff walked out on Thursday in support of workers who were sacked at the caterer Gate Gourmet, stranding more than 110,000 passengers at the peak of the summer holiday travel season.

"Fairly tough negotiations are happening," said a TGWU spokesman. Asked how long the talks would continue, he said: "The schedule is to try and get a resolution to this dispute".