British Airways cabin crew strike takes effect

The Unite union, which represents crew members, said more than 80 planes were grounded at Heathrow and an "enormous" amount of flights had been cancelled.
BA said staff were turning up in enough numbers to maintain its revised schedule for Heathrow and Gatwick.
Staff are striking over pay and working conditions, with a further four-day walkout planned for 27 March.
'Contingency plan'
Unite national official Steve Turner said on Saturday morning: "I have seen the 80-plus aircraft that are grounded right now.
"British Airways have cancelled an enormous amount of flights and many passengers have realised that given the turmoil they are likely to face today, they are not going to travel and have sought and achieved a refund."
BA said it aimed to fly as many passengers as possible over the weekend.
A spokesman said: "At Heathrow and Gatwick we have got off to a good start. London City is operating as normal.
"Cabin crew are reporting as normal at Gatwick and the numbers reporting at Heathrow are above the levels we need to operate our published schedule.
"This is the biggest contingency plan we have ever launched. Our main aim, since we published our schedule, has been to give our customers as much information as early as possible so that they can choose the most convenient option."
Flight numbers
BA said that 65% of passengers would still be able to reach their destination during the first three-day strike, even though a total of 1,100 BA flights out of the 1,950 scheduled to operate would be cancelled.
At Gatwick, all long-haul flights and more than half of short-haul flights are expected to operate as normal.

AT THE SCENE Joe Lynam, business correspondent at Heathrow airport British Airways cannot afford to be too smug at this early stage in an industrial dispute - but it might be able to afford a relieved sigh. Its main hub here at Heathrow Terminal 5 is was moving quite well. There was no evidence of queues nor irate passengers unable to get on planes. Much of the thanks for that can also be attributed to the pragmatic nature of the travelling public. They were well warned and reacted accordingly. They rebooked, rerouted or were simply refunded. Striking cabin crews were also out in colourful force only a few metres from a large collection of grounded BA planes. The union will take solace in the fact that their actions over the next two to three days has already caused BA to warn that flights from Heathrow on Tuesday and perhaps Wednesday will be impacted in some way. That will add to the mounting bill facing the airline which could exceed £100m ($150m) by the time the next round of strikes commence on 27 March. BA strike impact still up in the air

At Heathrow, more than 60% of long-haul flights will operate, though only 30% of short-haul flights are expected to do so, with the help of aircraft hired in from other carriers.
Uncertainty still exists about just how many BA crew will go on strike after BA said that any staff who took part in strike action would lose perks, including heavily-discounted travel fares.
BA said it was confident that it could handle 49,000 passengers on each of Saturday and Sunday, compared with around 75,000 on a normal weekend day in March.
In a video message on the BA website, chief executive Willie Walsh apologised to passengers for a "terrible day" and said he was confident a "good service" would be provided.
Mr Walsh and Unite union joint general secretary Tony Woodley failed to reach an agreement to avert action on Friday in the increasingly bitter dispute. After the talks failed, Mr Woodley said Mr Walsh wanted to "go to war" with the union. Mr Walsh dismissed the claim as "absolute nonsense".
Mr Woodley had called on BA to put an earlier deal to end the strikes "back on the table", which he said would have allowed him to call off the strike while union members considered it.
Instead, Mr Walsh offered a less attractive deal to compensate the company for the costs already incurred in making alternative arrangements for some passengers to fly during the strikes.
'Fairly quiet'
"Those contingency plans seem to be paying dividends because so far it's moving smoothly."
Former BA cabin crew manager Jamie Bowden said most of the check-in staff at Terminal 5 were working without any disruptions.

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He told BBC News: "The leased aircraft that British Airways have chartered in, they are part of the normal computer system now, and so far things are going pretty smoothly.
"Of course, British Airways' long-haul flights from Terminal 5 won't start until later on this morning so predominantly the first three or four hours are going to be short-haul, but so far it seems to be fairly quiet over there."
Cost cutting
Among the passengers inconvenienced is James Alexander, from Newcastle, who is due to emigrate to Australia with his partner on Monday, the last day of the strike.
He said: "I've told them today on the phone I'll never fly BA again. Never. Just purely as a matter of principle now. This is chaos."
BA has been in negotiations with Unite for many months.
Workers are particularly angry that last November BA reduced the number of crew on long-haul flights and is introducing a two-year pay freeze from 2010.
The airline also proposed new contracts with lower pay for fresh recruits.
Unite says it accepts the need for BA to cut costs, but that it was not consulted on the changes.
BA suffered a loss before tax of £342m for the nine months to the end of December 2009 and says it needs to cut costs in order to survive.