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BAA has yet to reach a deal with the travel union Unite over strikes scheduled for all of its seven major airports in the New Year.

Talks aimed at averting the industrial action concluded last week without a breakthrough over the airport operator's decision to close its final salary pension scheme to new employees.

Unless the two sides can reach an agreement in the coming days, two 24-hour strikes will go ahead as planned on 7 January and 14 January followed by a 48-hour walkout on 18 January.

Union members voted by a more than 2:1 margin in favour of the industrial action, which will affect over 300,000 passengers and involves crucial staff such as firefighters and security personnel.

A BAA spokesman said he was 'disappointed' that the talks had failed, adding: 'We will continue to do all we can to resolve this dispute since we believe that a strike would not be in the interests of our passengers or our staff.'

The affected airports are Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

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