With a strike looming, the UK’s flagship carrier British Airways is due to announce the flights that may be cancelled due to a looming strike penned in by cabin crew for next weekend.
The strike is over pay and reduced staffing levels at the airline, with the initial strike to commence on March 20th.
In the meantime, a spokesman for Downing Street has refused to confirm whether or not Prime Minister Gordon Brown has spoken to the union representing the cabin crew, Unite.
Newspaper reports have indicated that the PM called the general secretary of the union to talk about possible solutions to the issue.
The strike is expected to last for three days, with a second strike lasting for four days due to commence on the 27th of March.
The announcement, anticipated to take place this afternoon, will allow hundreds of thousands of travellers to make an informed decision on what alternative travel arrangements to make.
However, the airline is insisting that it will operate 70 per cent of services, with most cancellations likely to be domestic or short haul operations.
BA has also said that it would be operating at least 23 aircraft with trained replacement crews made up from staff from other departments in the airline.
It has been reported that Gordon Brown has weighed in personally into the dispute, making a weekend phone call to Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the Unite union.
But a source at Downing Street could not confirm or deny the claim, saying that he did not want to give a running commentary on the dispute.
