Threat of pilot strike likely to stall OpenSkies launch

Linsey McNeill, Travel Weekly, 5/19/2008 (excerpted)

Editor's Note: On May 16, OpenSkies received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin operations. The DOT also approved OpenSkies' codeshare arrangement with French airline L'Avion, whose code will be placed on OpenSkies' flights between Orly and Kennedy.

LONDON -- British Airways' plans to launch OpenSkies, the first new airline to take advantage of the liberalized air service agreement between the U.S. and Europe, could be jeopardized by its 3,000 pilots, who are threatening to strike for the first time in 30 years.

The airline has applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation for permission to operate a codeshare service with French all-premium carrier L'Avion between Paris and New York, but OpenSkies' proposed launch date of June 19 now looks overly optimistic.

The British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA) is expected to go to the High Court this week to find out if a strike would be legal. If the decision, expected by May 23, is in its favor, BALPA could call an all-out strike within seven days.

The union is outraged that pilots working for OpenSkies, set up as a separate subsidiary to BA, would be recruited on different contracts with lower wages than those working for the main airline. A BALPA spokesman said: “Our concern is not that OpenSkies pilots will be paid a bit less but that BA will gradually transfer pilots from the main airline to this new subsidiary, which will erode salaries. Feeling is so strong among the pilots that they are prepared to go on strike, which will ground the entire airline.”

Until it reaches an agreement with its pilots, BA -- which is still trying to recover from the Heathrow T5 fiasco -- is unlikely to press ahead with OpenSkies and cause a second public relations disaster this year.

Full details of the service have yet to be confirmed, but after first announcing that OpenSkies would be an all-premium airline, BA has now revealed that the carrier will be a sort of hybrid: roomier and more stylish than traditional transatlantic airlines but still operating a three-class configuration.

A former BA Boeing 757 has been fitted with 82 seats. The new business-class cabin will have 24 seats that convert to 6-foot flat beds. Premium economy will have 28 seats with a 52-inch pitch, which is greater than other premium economy services. Economy will have 30 leather seats.

OpenSkies Managing Director Dale Moss said that the codeshare with L'Avion would enable the airline to switch its proposed flights from Paris' de Gaulle Airport to Orly, which is closer to the city's center. L'Avion, which launched only 16 months ago, operates up to two flights a day from Orly to Newark using a Boeing 757 in an all-business class configuration with 90 seats.

An OpenSkies spokesman said the airline anticipated operating a second B757 later this year and four more throughout 2009, when it will add transatlantic services from other continental European cities, including Brussels.