BA catering deal ends long-running row

British Airways tonight signed a new deal with its caterers at Heathrow Airport, finally bringing to an end a row which led to huge travel disruption in the summer.

The airline signed a commercial agreement with Gate Gourmet, which was involved in a bitter dispute after sacking hundreds of workers.

BA’s baggage handlers staged sympathy strikes, grounding flights at Heathrow for a day in August.

Gate Gourmet, which supplies in-flight food for BA’s services at Heathrow, reached a deal last month with the Transport and General Workers Union which saw hundreds of its employees take redundancy.

Eric Born, managing director of Gate Gourmet, said: “Throughout the difficulties of the past few months, our overriding objective has been to secure the future viability of Gate Gourmet’s Heathrow operation and the jobs that depend on it. Today’s agreement helps us to achieve both.

“Despite all that was said during the dispute we did not provoke nor did we seek a conflict with our staff or trade union.”