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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Another spoiler hangs in the air for British travelers because of a plan by British Airways cabin crew to strike during the Christmas holidays.

The threat of a yearend job walk off came after the Unite trade union announced plans to hold a new strike ballot among the air carrier’s 12,000 flight attendants.

About 1,000 BA cabin crew favored the holding a new strike ballot during their Tuesday meeting at the Kempton Park racecourse. Brendan Gold, Unite national secretary for civil air transport, said the decision to hold a new ballot was over three issues, namely:

• changes in work practices,
• firing of 14 crew and
• removal of travel perks for flight attendants who joined 22 days of strike in March, May and June.

BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh is insistent on the crew changes because reducing the air carrier’s flight attendants by one person would save the financially embattled air carrier $90 million (60 million pounds) a year.

Walsh said he is hoping the winter strike would not push through, but added he is prepared for one. He said BA plans to hire new crew with lower salaries, with 1,000 new hires expected to start working by Nov. 1. Walsh estimated that with continuous recruitment of flight attendants, within 10 years BA will have a 4,500 mixed-fleet crew made up of senior and junior flight attendants.

Walsh accused the strikers of being out of touch with the reality that the global aviation industry is going through a difficult time and everyone needs to adjust to changes, including cost-cutting measures initiated by airline companies.

Despite BA’s labor problems the air carrier is bent on expanding its operations once its merger with Spanish airline Iberia is completed. BA is looking into buying an airline from a list of 12 air carriers for the International Airlines Group it will set up with Iberia.

Bookmaker Paddy Power said the most likely airline that IAG will buy is Chile’s Lan Airlines. Other major contenders are Cathay Pacific of Hong Kong, Australia’s Qantas and American Airlines.