Fresh produce supply into troubled airline caterer Gate Gourmet has been affected by industrial action which saw British Airways flights out of Heathrow grounded last week.

Although no-one from supplier Mack was available to comment to the Journal this week, Gate Gourmet confirmed meal provision on BA flights has been severely hampered for a week.

As the Journal went to press, Gate Gourmet was expecting the situation to improve.

“We are hoping to ramp up to a better service on long haul flights with hot meals again from Monday August 22, but that still won’t be up to the same standard as before, with full provision on shorter flights expected to take longer.”

The company has been in the spotlight since August 11 when it sacked 670 staff in a dispute over restructuring. The company then vowed to not allow itself to be “continually put at risk and held to ransom” by the concerted strike action that followed

Gate Gourmet has said it needs to cut costs at Heathrow, where it lost £25 million last year, including labour savings of £14m but has stressed that labour developments are an isolated issue without any implications for the parent company.