British Airways announces seven days of strikes for late March

The union balloted cabin crew workers earlier this year, who voted overwhelmingly for strike action.

Unite officials previously stated that they would not strike over Easter, following an earlier proposed strike over Christmas costing the union public support.

Talks broke down earlier this week after BA rejected a proposal from Unite that accepted a pay freeze last year and proposed a 2.6 per cent pay cut this year followed by a pay rise and bonuses next year.

BA said the proposal was not enough to save the £62.5 million the loss-making airline was aiming for. Last year BA lost £401 million and is expected to post even greater losses this year.

In order to cut costs BA has reduced the number of cabin crew on long haul flights, prompting the dispute.

Despite the strike action BA has said that it has trained 1,000 volunteers to stand in for strikers and has 4,000 more on the way. As a result the airline said it expected to be able to run all of its long haul flights and half of all short haul flights from Gatwick in the event of a strike.