The third day of a strike by British Airways cabin crew at London's Heathrow airport has affected thousands of travellers. Flights to Amsterdam, Paris and Milan have been affected as well long haul flights to New York and Mumbai. Heathrow is British Airways' home airport and the busiest passenger airport in the world. BA flights from Gatwick and London City have not been affected.

On Wednesday, seven scheduled flights from Amsterdam Schiphol to London Heathrow have been cancelled. Yesterday, four BA flights were scrapped. On Monday, the first day of the five-day strike, flights to various destinations including Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Glasgow, Manchester and Munich were cancelled and three of the scheduled nine flights to New York also fell by the wayside. Despite strike action, BA expects that 60 percent of all long haul flights and 50 percent of short haul flights will go ahead as planned. British Airways says it has been able to take at least 70 percent of all the passengers who had booked to their destinations.

Perks
BA cabin crew walked off the job in the early hours of Monday morning after talks between BA executives and flight crew unions - Unite and Bassa - failed. The strike isn't over pay as BA and the unions have reached a broad agreement on that issue; the conflict now centres on benefits, in particular perks for personnel not on duty. British Airways wants to scrap the heavily discounted flights currently enjoyed by cabin personnel.

Record losses
Unite has accused BA chief Willie Walsh of attempting to break the unions and imposing changes on cabin staff and refusing to negotiate fairly. Mr Walsh says BA is fighting for its life; last Friday the company announced record losses of 608 million euros.