Holidaymakers across Europe should expect more chaos, as the strike held by British Airways (BA) staff continues and labour conflicts in other carriers. BA cabin crew had ended their strike at midnight on Monday, but plan to start the strike again this Saturday.

The UK national carrier announced that during the first two days of the strike, BA had operated only 78 per cent of its scheduled international flights and half of its short-haul flights.

In related news, TAP Portugal pilots will also stage a five-day strike that will commence this coming Friday. Moreover, Alitalia was forced to cancel its flights last Monday due to the four-hour strike taken by its crew members. On the other hand, Air France has been lucky to prevent a four-day walkout, planned by its workers this week, after unions agreed to negotiate.

Blamed on the recent economic downturn and falling revenues, the arguments between unions and European airline companies have greatly affected the operations of carriers and the travel plans of holidaymakers. The CEO of the Air Transport Users Council in Britain, Simon Evans, said that passengers are usually caught in the middle during strikes because they have no power or control.

Stephen Furlong, airline analyst at Dublin-based Davy Stockbrokers, reasoned that the biggest issue that most European carriers face is labour costs. Also, the high price of jet fuel eats up most of their profits, so airline companies sometimes need to reshuffle or cut jobs, forcing several company staff to stage a strike.