Thomas Cook pilots have called off 8 days of strikes planned for October.
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) said the strikes were cancelled after the two sides agreed to enter arbitration to resolve a pay dispute.
BALPA’s Union members and Thomas Cook are in dispute after the company offered what BALPA says is an “unreasonable” pay increase of 1.5%.
The union says it wants at least 2.9%, a figure it claims is in line with inflation. In addition, they want better travel facilities for staff.
There have so far been 2strikess, the first on the 8th September was the first strike by pilots in the UK for 3 decades.
BALPA general secretary, Brian Strutton said: “I am pleased that we have been able to find a peaceful way of resolving the pilots’ pay dispute without further disruption to passengers”.
Thomas Cook said it was: “keen to resolve this dispute in the interests of all involved and we will now focus on proceeding with the arbitration process.”.
The calling off of the strikes beings some comfort to passengers who in the last few weeks have seen travel group Monarch collapse and Low-Cost Carrier Ryanair suffer a pilot crisis resulting in the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
