Thomas Cook pilots go on 12-hour pay dispute strike

The first UK pilots’ strike since 1974 has seen Thomas Cook pilots go on strike for 12 hours, starting at 3am September 8th. Members of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) failed to see their demands for a pay rise met for the tour operator’s pilots, who then walked out of the negotiations.
Thomas Cook had offered its pilots a 4% increase in pay, spread over two years, in addition to an average 1.8% rise across the board. A spokesman for BALPA indicated that it had requested an immediate pay increase of 3.2% earlier this year, which was very much in line with inflation figures. In addition, it requested a third of the gap that currently exists between Thomas Cook pilots’ pay and that of other pilots in the industry be rectified, a sum which equates to approximately a 5.7% increase, as well as pilots being able to travel business class when being transferred by the company to alternative locations. Thomas Cook are understood to have agreed with BALPA to five days of negotiations at the ACAS dispute service in the next couple of weeks.
Formed as part of the rebranding of JMC Air in 2003, Thomas Cook Airlines, a subsidiary of the Thomas Cook Group, flies to 72 destinations and operates a fleet of 27 Airbus and 7 Boeing jets. In 2016, it carried approximately 6.6 million passengers on a total of 32, 208 flights, with a load factor of 89.8%.