British Airways strike going ahead with 1,000 trained volunteers ready

With talks set to resume at 9am today, it now appears most likely that any deal with the Unions will salvage BA's service for the second run of strikes scheduled to begin on 27 March.

"Any untrained scabs would endanger the flying public and there's also the issue of security which terrorists could infiltrate" warned Teamsters Union, Unite's partner in the US.

Talks are said to gone on most of yesterday, lost valuable time when Tony Woodley, Unite's general secretary, flatly rejected Walsh's new offer in the morning, but then came back to the table after speaking with his colleagues.

Talks the continued into the evening until midnight without firm conclusion - although BA's latest offer appears to have solved most differences.

Sources close to the discussions however, said they remained 'hanging by a thread'.

It remains to BA's 1,000 trained volunteers (and whoever else turns up) to handle the 65 pct of BA's passanger - 49,000 a day - with the remainder covered by its partners.

The airline is believed to have already lost more than £25 million in cancelled tickets and contingency plans.