LONDON — British Airways cabin crews began a five-day strike Monday to protest cost- cutting changes at the money-losing airline, forcing it to scrap almost half its flights out of London’s Heathrow Airport.
Flights in and out of Denver International Airport had not been affected as of Monday afternoon.
Two walkouts are planned by the Unite union if the long- running dispute is not resolved — an increasingly likely eventuality after weekend talks broke down in acrimony.
BA said it plans to carry 70 percent of booked passengers over the strike period, with flight schedules at Gatwick and London City airports unaffected by the walkout.
But services at Heathrow were hit — adding to travel misery for passengers just weeks after the closure of European airspace because of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud and a seven-day BA cabin-crew strike in March.
Most of the anger from affected passengers was again directed at the striking workers, some of whom gathered on an open-top double-decker bus near Heathrow’s perimeter fence, waving banners reading, “Brutish Airways.”
