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CNN Live At Daybreak
Strike Strands Passengers at Heathrow Airport
Aired July 22, 2003 - 06:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: If you are hopping across the pond today via British Airways, we have some bad news for you, a strike may make your travel plans moot.
Live to London now and Paula Hancocks.
Paula, what's happening over there?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, I'm standing outside terminal four, which is the main terminal in Heathrow for the long-haul flights, and you can see behind me a lot of people still queuing, still waiting. We have hundreds of people outside waiting to get on their flights. BA, British Airways, says that there are no flights canceled today, but of course they have a backlog from the weekend. They're trying to clear people through. They say about 700 passengers are still waiting from the weekend to get on to their flights.
Now they have put up some marquees for refreshments and so the passengers can get out of the sun. But of course there are so many people here at the moment, they're not allowing them into the terminal until their flight has been called and until they can actually check in.
To put this into context, this comes back from Friday when check- in staff and ticket staff actually walked out on the job because BA was trying to introduce an automated check-in system where basically these workers would have to electronically check in and check out. They were worried that this meant they might have to work shorter hours during quieter periods or stay longer during the busier periods.
Now unions are in talks with British Airways today. Those talks started about 40 minutes ago, and they were in talks all day on Monday as well. British Airways isn't making any comment as yet how those talks are going. They are being held here in Heathrow behind closed doors. But as you can imagine, the tone here at the moment and the mood here at the moment is not particularly happy as a lot of these people have been waiting for some time -- Carol.
COSTELLO: No, I would probably term it tense and I'm way over here in America.
Paula Hancocks live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 22, 2003 - 06:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: If you are hopping across the pond today via British Airways, we have some bad news for you, a strike may make your travel plans moot.
Live to London now and Paula Hancocks.
Paula, what's happening over there?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, I'm standing outside terminal four, which is the main terminal in Heathrow for the long-haul flights, and you can see behind me a lot of people still queuing, still waiting. We have hundreds of people outside waiting to get on their flights. BA, British Airways, says that there are no flights canceled today, but of course they have a backlog from the weekend. They're trying to clear people through. They say about 700 passengers are still waiting from the weekend to get on to their flights.
Now they have put up some marquees for refreshments and so the passengers can get out of the sun. But of course there are so many people here at the moment, they're not allowing them into the terminal until their flight has been called and until they can actually check in.
To put this into context, this comes back from Friday when check- in staff and ticket staff actually walked out on the job because BA was trying to introduce an automated check-in system where basically these workers would have to electronically check in and check out. They were worried that this meant they might have to work shorter hours during quieter periods or stay longer during the busier periods.
Now unions are in talks with British Airways today. Those talks started about 40 minutes ago, and they were in talks all day on Monday as well. British Airways isn't making any comment as yet how those talks are going. They are being held here in Heathrow behind closed doors. But as you can imagine, the tone here at the moment and the mood here at the moment is not particularly happy as a lot of these people have been waiting for some time -- Carol.
COSTELLO: No, I would probably term it tense and I'm way over here in America.
Paula Hancocks live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
