London, England – A strike by British Airways cabin crew entered its second day Sunday with the airline insisting it was operating a good service against union claims of heavy disruption.

BA said it had managed to reinstate canceled flights to run more than 60 percent of its schedule on the first day of the three-day stoppage as more staff than expected showed up for work.

But Unite, the union which opposes British Airways reorganization plans it says will lead to job cuts, claimed success in halting services, describing Terminal 5, the BA hub at London’s Heathrow Airport, as a “ghost town.”

In a statement posted on Twitter on Saturday, the Union — which represents 15,000 cabin crew, added: “Eighty percent crew are backing the strike — same number who voted for it. Two thirds of BA’s normal scheduled flights not flown today.”

Union rallies were continuing outside Heathrow on Sunday, but BA said it intended to maintain a 60 percent service from the airport and its other main hub at Gatwick, south of London, and was satisfied that contingency measures were working.

“The operation is working very well, in fact we’re doing better than expected,” the airline’s CEO Willie Walsh said in a statement posted Saturday on its Web site.

“We’re carrying all of the customers who we had promised to fly today. So I’m really pleased the contingency plans have worked, in fact they’ve worked better than I thought.”

British Airways, which is also expected to be hit by a four day strike beginning March 27, has drafted in an army of volunteers to staff flights and has leased aircraft and crew from other airlines to operated scheduled services.

(Source: http://edition.cnn.com/)