Does IB really have lots of planes and crew sitting around doing nothing? I simply can't see Willie and the IAG bean counters allowing that to happen given how they've taken hold of the loss making parts of the business in no uncertain fashion.

I suspect that might therefore stretch the definition of strike as an extraordinary circumstance when trying to wriggle out of EC261 compensation for the airlines whose flights are cancelled when none of their staff are taking action.

If I were an IB customer whose flight was cancelled to enable a BA one to fly, I'd probably be prepared to let the courts decide if that was an operational decision by IB to sub an aircraft elsewhere rather than run its own scheduled flight ...