Thomas Cook pilots abandon strike action

Pilots working for Thomas Cook reached an agreement with the travel group to call off eight days of strike action planned throughout October.

Both parties agreed to enter binding arbitration to resolve what the British Airline Pilots Association said on Thursday was an "unreasonable" wage increase offer of 1.5% from Thomas Cook.

As a result of the arbitration, BALPA called off a strike planned for Friday, a three-day strike from 12 October, and a four-day strike starting on 19 October.

The union had demanded pilots receive a pay rise in line with inflation, currently at 2.9% on a consumer price index basis, and better travel facilities.

"I am pleased that we have been able to find a peaceful way of resolving the pilots' pay dispute without further disruption to passengers," said general secretary Brian Strutton.

Thomas Cook said, "We remain keen to resolve this dispute in the interests of all involved and we will now focus on proceeding with the arbitration process," and also noted that it had changed some flight times for Friday in order to manage the planned strike. "We'll be keeping these revised departure times."

As of 1350 BST, shares in Thomas Cook were holding steady at 123.9p.