British Airways to axe 400 jobs in 'bitter' blow to staff

The union expressed "bitter disappointment" over the news as the airline launched a 90-day consultation period with the first of the cuts expected to take effect next March.

The cuts affect senior cabin crew working exclusively on either BA's short or long-haul routes but not those who work across both.

Unite national officer Oliver Richardson said: "This is a bitter disappointment at a time of economic uncertainty and will be a blow for loyal staff who now face an uncertain Christmas and new year.

"We will be working to ensure that BA keeps its promise of 'no compulsory' redundancies. Any attempts to force people wanting to continue working for BA out of a job will be resisted."

British Airways said that those being offered the redundancy package would be senior cabin crew such as pursers and cabin service directors.

The package will not be available to "mixed fleet" workers on both long-haul and short-haul flights.

A spokesman said: "This is a purely voluntary scheme.

"We have no plans to make any compulsory redundancies."

BA, which had a damaging months-long cabin crew dispute that ended last year, has around 14,000 cabin crew in total.