British Airways cabin crew are poised to vote in favour of a strike following news that their bid to overturn new working conditions has been rejected by the High Court.

The Unite union had taken British Airways to court over the carrier’s decision to cut the number of cabin crew by one or two members on all of its short and long-haul flights.

BA cabin crew had claimed they were not consulted on the move, but their legal bid to reverse the changes was this morning rejected by Judge Sir Christopher Holland.

The flag carrier’s cost-cutting efforts comes as BA expects to announce annual losses of about £600 million this year, with the airline losing roughly £1.6 million per day.

British Airways CEO Willie Walsh has warned that fundamental restructuring is needed if BA is to avoid the fate meted out to other loss-making carriers such as JAL Japan Airlines, which declared bankruptcy last month. But Unite’s only response has been to ballot members for strike action.

The union will announce the result of its strike vote at 2pm on Monday 22 February. Unite has to give seven days notice before staging industrial action, meaning walkouts could begin on 1 March.

Reacting to the latest news, a spokesman for British Airways said: “We are extremely pleased with today’s High Court ruling that the modest changes we made to onboard crew numbers on flights from Heathrow were reasonable, did not breach crew contracts and can remain in place.”

But its call for the BA strike threat to be dropped fell on deaf ears, with Unite chief Len McCluskey saying the ruling “makes absolutely no difference to the substance of our dispute with British Airways.”

This is the second time the High Court has returned a decision in favour of British Airways over the industrial spat. In December, a judge granted the airline a temporary injunction that shielded it from a 12-day strike due to be held over Christmas, citing concerns about the method of balloting staff.

Saj Ahmad, analyst at FBE Aerospace, said the High Court’s continued support for BA sends a clear message to Unite that its grievances lack both judicial and public backing.

“This court ruling is a massive blow to the entire basis of the cabin crew union position,” he told Cheapflights. “If they vote to strike, it will ultimately be their members’ jobs that are lost.”

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