An airline stewardess with British Airways has been arrested, along with a self-styling Hindu holy man, for their suspected roles in a prostitution racket estimated in the multi-millions of pounds.
The pair was arrested in Delhi, with local police authorities claiming that the man, Hindu swami Shiv Myra Dwivedi, had been using his south city temple as a cover for an operation involving up to as many as 200 prostitutes. Among the number were students and air hostesses who were normally offered to guest of five-star hotels.
The holy man claims to have a following of over 100,000 including a number of [...]

About 3,500 British Airways (BA) workers, including 1,000 pilots, are ready to work as plane stewards to help ease the potentially disastrous effects of a planned strike by cabin crew. With so many pro-management staff prepared to intervene, it is expected that the UK’s national carrier will still be able to operate limited flight service even if 12,000 of its cabin crew will join the walk out.
 
BA staffs are striking over their jobs, pay and work conditions. Last week, the High Court ruled that the airline had not violated any contract by reducing the number of cabin staff on several [...]

Leading UK air operator British Airways has won its latest High Court case against the unions after the court ruled that staff contract conditions had not been breached following changes to onboard conditions for employees.
Unite, the union representing the airline staff, has been in constant negotiations with BA over recent months, many of which have become acrimonious to say the least. The latest case stemmed from changes made to staff contracts in an effort by the embattled airline to reduce overheads in the face of ongoing economic instability. BA has defended the move aimed squarely at halting falling profit while [...]

The already troubled European airline industry is facing yet more disruptions after pilots working for German carrier Lufthansa voted in favour of their largest strike in almost a decade in reaction to ongoing job security.
Of the airline’s pilots, a staggering 93 percent said yes to the strike, which is scheduled to begin on Monday. All of the pilots will be asked to participate in the strike which will have massive consequences given Lufthansa is one of the ‘big three’ airlines in Europe along with British Airways and France-KLM.
Management has accepted full responsibility for the action, which dates back to acrimonious [...]

Planning a holiday to the US? In spite of the ever-present travel warnings and security focus the US remains a popular destination and with the weakening pound being mirrored by the declining dollar UK holidaymakers can still find excellent deals.
According to The Sunday Telegraph’s travel reviewer a 10-day package holiday including flights, accommodation and car hire can still be found for around£800 – the same price as 2007. Even better is that rental car drivers will find delight in the fact that petrol is a measly 45p per litre.
Flights to and from the US are continuing to stay stable and [...]

VisitBritain is the official website for information on travel and tourism in the United Kingdom, offering practical advice and great deals.
The latest offering sees the online specialist team up with both Easyjet and British Airways to provide a range of new promotions for British cities. The new advertising campaign is a continuation from the successful 2009 promotion which showcased the likes of London, Glasgow, Bristol, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Cardiff and Oxford. In keeping with last year’s formula the new campaign will see the VisitBritain site provide a valuable publicity boost for destination cities for the entire year.
The advertising on [...]

It now seems, according to the Unite union, that only 216 volunteers have offered to replace British Airways’ cabin crew in the event of industrial action. The trade union went on to claim that the program to retrain employees to replace the stewards during industrial action would replace less than 2 percent of the carrier’s cabin crew.
The union went on to say that these plans by the airline are nothing more than a “scab labor” drive. The strike ballot, which opened just earlier this week, is set to close as of February 22nd. Thus, the earliest possible strike could [...]

The threat of another strike at British Airways could happened at any time. However, new reports now suggest that the union strike is not likely to happen during Easter. Unite, the union that is representing the airline’s cabin crew, said that no action would occur over Easter. This announcement comes just after the union chose to hold a new strike ballot.
A spokesman for the union, Len McCluskey, said that he wanted families to be able to plan their travel arrangements in confidence. British Airways attacked the union statement saying that it offered little comfort to travelers, as a strike [...]

Reports show that the union has reacted angrily to British Airways’ move to train its ground staff as cabin crew. This move by British Airways came out as the talks between the airline and Unite bosses broke down without any resolution to the ongoing dispute over contracts.
The Unite union has announced that it will re-ballot its members on Monday, January 25th on whether to strike or not. This makes the threat of an Easter walkout still very possible. British Airways had just recently said that they were saddened but not surprised at the decision to hold another ballot.
British Airways chief [...]

It seems that British Airways is not just planning on closing down on the days that the union plans on going on strike. In fact, British Airways has been asking its office-based staff to volunteer as cabin crew members in case of a strike by union members.
British Airways went on to send out this message to its employees after talks with the union stalled out yet again. The airline said that although it was sad that the talks fell through, it was not at all shocking. They also noted that the fact that the union is already thinking and planning [...]