British Airways has reportedly reached an ‘agreement in principle’ with the BALPA pilots union on a new a new five-year contract and the deal will be sent to aircrew to vote on.
Negotiations between the airline and union have been dragging on for months, although little progress had seemingly been made despite BA managing to conclude similar talks with cabin crew and ground staff earlier this year.
The agreement in principle is believed to address some of the pandemic-era pay cuts that pilots had voluntarily accepted to prevent huge job losses.
In a statement, an airline spokesperson noted: “The pay offer builds on a number of pay and reward changes made in 2022 to support colleagues throughout the business at a time of ongoing cost-of-living pressures”.
British Airways pilots last went on strike in September 2019 after difficult pay talks with the airline broke down without success. The two-day walkout is said to have cost BA at least €137 million after the airline was forced to ground around 2,325 flights.
Following the strike, the two sides returned to the negotiating table and an 11.5 per cent pay rise spread over three years was eventually accepted in a vote accepted by the majority of BALPA members.
