The general secretary of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) is a reluctant sabre rattler. Having been steered away from flying warplanes as a youth in the RAF, Martin Chalk now finds himself having to prime his union’s main weapon in the direction of his former employer.
Balpa members at British Airways are angry – and a second pilots’ strike in three years could be on the cards. After stepping down from BA as a captain of the world’s biggest superjumbo, the A380, at the start of the pandemic, Chalk must now guide a new set of charges through more turbulence.
