BA Flights resume after wildcat strike

The first British Airways flights since a wildcat strike crippled Heathrow services and stranded 70,000 travellers have departed from the airport.

The flights come after two thirds of BA staff who took part in an unofficial strike returned to work.

Some baggage handlers and other employees reported for duty on Thursday morning, but more decided to end their action after it was announced that peace talks would be held to try to resolve a row involving a firm which supplies food to the airline.

Tens of thousands of passengers have been stranded because of the dispute, which caused travel chaos in one of the busiest weeks of the year for the airline industry.

The baggage handlers, loaders and other staff returned to work today following an agreement to hold peace talks to resolve a bitter row involving a company which supplies BA with onboard catering.

The first flight will go to Glasgow followed by others to Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Budapest, Newcastle, Beirut, Manchester, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Lagos, Sydney, Dubai, Malaga, Rio, Kuwait and Tel Aviv.

The BA workers staged the unofficial strike in support of hundreds of employees of Gate Gourmet who were dismissed on Wednesday in a dispute over working practices.

Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded for a second day at Heathrow, with many growing increasingly frustrated at the chaos.