Demonstrators wave flags at an official picket lines during a strike by British Airways cabin crew, near Heathrow Airport in west London March 20, 2010. [Photo: Xinhua/Reuters]

The three-day strike by cabin crew at British Airways entered the second day on Saturday morning,  causing severe disruptions to flights, according to news reports on Sunday. 

The strike is attempting to force their CEO to drop cuts to pay and staffing levels after saying it made a "good start" at operating on the first day, Bloomberg reported.

According to BBC news, the first day's strike affected some passengers flying to London via Gatwick Airport, as the crew members admit that there was only a third of BA's normal fights took off.

However, BA said it was confident that it could handle 49,000 passengers on each of Saturday and Sunday, compared with about 75,000 on a normal weekend day in March.

A BA spokeswoman said, "At Heathrow, around half of cabin crew have reported as normal and we are therefore increasing the number of long-haul and short-haul flights in our schedule in the days ahead."

The BA Union said that 80% of its 12,000 members had supported the first day of a three-day walkout - the first by BA cabin crew in 13 years.

This weekend's strike, the first at London-based British Airways since 1997, will be followed by a four-day strike from March 27.