A union official has said that British Airways crew members have begun a five-day walkout, causing many flights in and out of Heathrow to be canceled.

The Times of London has said that cabin crew members ended one five-day strike Friday and had also been on strike for seven days in March.

Contingency plans, with more cabin crew members reporting for work, will allow 65,000 passengers to fly during the five days, causing less disruption to the flight schedule than previous strikes, the airline has said.

It has been reported that cabin crew members, in a dispute with management over pay and working conditions, plan to strike again June 5 if no agreement is reached, said Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, which represents the bulk of the airline's 12,000 cabin crew members.

He wants talks to be televised and called Willie Walsh, the airline's chief executive, unreasonable, Simpson has said. Unite wants BA to restore travel concessions denied crew that had struck.

Simpson said during The Andrew Marr Show on BBC, "It is all about confidence of management in the workforce and of workforce in the management. Clearly there has been a breakdown. If we could get the confidence back a deal is doable."

Global operations ran smoothly during the first week of Unite's strike, a spokesman for BA said.

The spokesman further said, "We have got off to a good start today, on the first day of the second wave." (With Inputs from Agencies)