British Airways was forced to charter an old Boeing 747-200 jumbo last weekend from Air Atlanta, the Icelandic carrier, to fly its service from Heathrow to Cairo because of a severe shortage of cabin crew.
The same problem has also forced it to close its first class cabins on 44 flights during a 10-day period until Wednesday on many long-haul services including to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dubai, Cape Town, Beijing and Boston.
The embarrassing disclosure at BA's annual meeting on Tuesday came as the airline faced protests from several former cabin crew members who had been forced to retire at the airline's agreed age limit of 55, when they wished to continue working.
Several drew attention to the fact that Lord Marshall, BA chairman, was allowed to stay in his post until he is 70, when flight and cabin crew had to retire at 55.
Maria Williams, who had to leave BA in April at 55, paraded outside the AGM under placards saying "Trashed at 55" and "B.an A.geism."
Inside the meeting she told Lord Marshall she was "dismayed" at the shortage of cabin staff and said it was "anti-social and demeaning" to be retired at 55.
Mike Street, director of customer service and operations, said that the staff shortage had been caused by an "extraordinary increase of sickness" which meant the airline had been left with 180 more cabin crew than normal on sick leave.
Mr Street was told by Derek Fry, another former cabin crew member recently retired at 55, that the problem of staff shortage happened every year. "We always have the same problem. It is called Henley, Wimbledon, Ascot and the like."
Lord Marshall said that BA had "no objection in principle" to raising the retirement age, but it had to be managed in the context of new legislation on retirement ages.
The airline said on Tuesday night that it had called in extra staff to solve the problem including the recall of some from unpaid leave and had moved some cabin crew with appropriate qualifications from short-haul to long-haul services.
The staff shortage raises questions about BA's ability to manage its current drastic staff reduction, in which it is shedding about 23 per cent or 13,000 full-time equivalent jobs between August 2001 and September this year. More than 10,000 jobs have already been removed.
By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent
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