Brown condemns BA strike

Brown, who is battling to maintain Labour's 13-year-grip on power in an election expected on May 6, said the seven-day strike was "unjustified and deplorable" and should be cancelled.

The Unite union that has called the strike is the largest financial backer of Brown's Labour party and its political director, Charlie Whelan, was once Brown's spokesman.

"It's the wrong time, it's unjustified, it's deplorable, we should not have a strike. It's not in the company's interest, it's not in the workers' interest and it's certainly not in the national interest," Brown told BBC Radio.

"I hope that this strike will be called off," he said in an interview on the Woman's Hour programme.

Most BA cabin crew plan a three-day strike starting next Saturday, followed by a four-day walkout from March 27, jeopardising Easter holiday plans for thousands of travellers.

BA on Monday said it aimed to fly around 45,000 customers a day during the first stoppage, roughly 60 percent of those booked to fly on those days, with short haul services at Heathrow and Gatwick likely to be worst hit.

It also said the majority of flights spanning the second strike period would remain in the schedule and that it would provide an update after the first strike period had ended.

BA has trained other staff to fill in as cabin crew during the strike, and has said it will hire 22 fully-crewed planes from charter companies to help run flights from Heathrow.

BA's shares closed 0.1 percent down at 235.5 pence, valuing the company at around 2.7 billion pounds.