BRITISH AIRWAYS flights will operate over Christmas, following yesterday’s decision of the high court in London to rule that a strike ballot of thousands of the company’s cabin crew was illegally held.

The decision means that the 12-day strike planned to start next Tuesday, which threatened the travel plans of one million passengers, will not go ahead, though the Unite union insists that staff will vote again.

The court ruled that 900 of 13,000 or so staff should not have voted because they had already accepted redundancy packages and had left or were about to leave – even though their votes would not have changed the result.

The cabin crew had voted by a 92 per cent majority for strike action in protest at BA chief executive Willie Walsh’s decision to cut the numbers of crew on longdistance flights.

Unite’s joint general secretary Derek Simpson said it was “a disgraceful day for democracy when a court can overrule such an overwhelming decision by employees taken in a secret ballot”.

Welcoming the judgment, British Airways held out hope of a deal: “We hope that Unite will take this opportunity to reflect before deciding its next steps. We believe Unite has formed a better understanding of our position and of the ways in which we could move forward,” it said, adding that the public does not want “old-style trade union militancy”.

Unite appears unlikely to appeal the ruling, but will hold a fresh ballot in February.