国际英语新闻：More BA passengers affected by second strike

LONDON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- More British Airways (BA) passengers were affected by a second strike by cabin crew with 93 scheduled fights being canceled at Heathrow airport on Saturday, local media reported.

The four-day strike is due to run from Saturday to Tuesday. The Unite union, which represents the cabin crew, warned that further strike action were likely to occur after the Easter period unless an agreement was reached over pay and working conditions.

BA said it had deployed the biggest contingency plan in history to try to limit the impact of the strikes.

On BA website, the airline said they have been able to expand their flight schedule to March 30 because of the increased numbers of cabin crew wishing to work as normal and will fly more than 75 percent of customers booked to travel during strike period.

BA said dozens of flights had already departed from Heathrow airport and at least 70 percent of long-haul flights and 55 percent of short-haul flights are expected to operate normally.

The talks over pay and working conditions between BA and the Unite Union collapsed on March 19. Cabin crew later started the first three-day strike.

Last year BA lost more than 400 million pounds (600 million U.S. dollars) and needs to cut costs significantly.

The union said the seven-day dispute would cost the airline about 100 million pounds (149 million U.S. dollars), twice 7 million pounds (10.43 million dollars) per day that BA announced earlier this week.