Hundreds more airline passengers in Bahrain are expected to be caught up in the aftermath of the second wave of British Airways strikes, as the airline struggles to resume cancelled services.

Flights between Bahrain and London Heathrow have been blighted by a series of strikes by 12,000 flight attendants in the last two weeks, which has already resulted in the cancellation of 12 flights.

The second wave of strikes is due to end today but customers have been dealt a nasty blow with news that scheduled services from Bahrain to London's Heathrow, tomorrow and Thursday, have also been axed.

One British couple hit by the new cancellations are facing an extra £1,000 (BD572) bill to change the dates for the car hire they had originally booked for their arrival earlier this week.

'We got a special price for booking several weeks in advance, but to change the date means cancelling and rebooking, which puts us back on premium rate, at just under £1,000 extra,' said the husband.

Another family learned only yesterday that their April 1 flight had been cancelled, after already switching their travel dates twice to avoid the strikes.

'They seem to be putting a pretty low priority on the Bahrain route,' said the father-of-three affected.

'One staff member told us we could either have our money back or wait for a later flight, but that we did not have the option of being put on another airline at BA's expense.

'When we asked why, we were told that this was because our flight was not on one of the actual strike dates, therefore we were not entitled to the same options.

'But the flight is being cancelled because of the knock-on effect of the strike, so all options should be open to us.'

The man said BA was likely to lose customers in the long-term because of its appalling communication with passengers.

'Industrial disputes happen. We may all get angry or frustrated, but that will change once the dispute is resolved,' he said.

'But people do not forget being badly treated or if staff handling the situation are confused themselves.

'BA promised personal contact with passengers - it has not kept that promise.'

The passenger said the only alert the family got was that its flight was cancelled - a line at the end of an e-mail about their return flight details - almost as if the news was given in passing.

BA said additional cancellations were unavoidable as the company attempted to realign its global operations after the strikes.

'There will be some cancellations of flights globally on March 31 as we get our aircraft, pilots and cabin crew back into the correct positions around the world,' it read.

'The knock-on impact is far less than anticipated due to the numbers of cabin crew who plan to work as normal.

'We have a complex global operation which has to co-ordinate the rosters of over 13,000 cabin crew, 3,000 pilots and 230 aircraft which all need to be in the right place at the right time across 150 destinations in more than 70 countries.'

Customers have been advised to continue checking the BA website at www.ba.com for updates.

The airline's union Unite has threatened further industrial action after April 14 if the pay dispute is not resolved.-TradeArabia News Service