Stranded passengers sleep in Heathrow's Terminal 4.
Photograph: Tim Ockenden/PA
After strike action three years ago and the threat of industrial action last year, the world's favourite airline, as British Airways likes to call itself, could have been forgiven for expecting clear skies this summer.
This time, trouble struck from an unexpected quarter - the food cart, as it were. More than 600 workers at Gate Gourmet, the catering firm that supplies BA with in-flight food, were sacked after what the food company described as illegal strike action.
That dispute triggered a chain reaction as members of the same union - the Transport and General Workers' Union - at BA walked out in sympathy.
The stoppage threw the airline into chaos. It cancelled all flights until at least 6pm this evening, disrupting the travel plans of at least 70,000 people.
Coming at the height of the holiday season, it was the last thing BA needed - especially when it is pulling out of the crisis that hit the airline industry after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
There are couple of ways of looking at this episode. You can see the walkout of some 1,000 BA workers in support of their fellow union members at Gate Gourmet - who probably include friends and relatives - as a rare gesture of worker solidarity.
Mind you, it is the kind of action that is not allowed after Margaret Thatcher introduced legislation that made "secondary action" - or sympathy strikes by one group of workers in support of another - illegal.
That is why the TGWU issued a statement repudiating the BA walkout and asked its BA members to return to work.
Or you can see the walkout as an unwelcome return to the past. For Henk Potts, an analyst at Barclays Stockbrokers, the episode is another example of an airline being held hostage by the unions.
"A minor problem in the catering business of an outsourced company has led to the whole operations of BA being shut down," Mr Potts said. "When you contract out to companies you expect any problems to be their problems, not yours."
Whichever side you take, what has come through loud and clear is the lack of company solidarity. The chief executive of Gate Gourmet, David Siegel, offered precious little sympathy for BA.
It was the third August in a row in which the airline had suffered disruption or the threat of action, he said, adding: "It seems to be an event for BA."
It was hardly the kind of statement designed to win friends at BA at a time when Gate Gourmet, the world's second-largest airline catering company, is facing lean times.
The US-owned company has not made a profit since 2000, and is on course to lose £25m this year without restructuring.
Mr Siegel said the company had pleaded for two hours for workers who had walked out in protest at planned changes to pay and conditions to return before sacking them.
He probably wishes it had tried for a little bit longer given the course of events.
