BA chief executive Cruz appeared before parliament’s transport committee on Wednesday (16 September) when he insisted the airline had stepped back from its fire and rehire threat to staff.

While Unite welcomed Cruz’s comments, the union called his statement only a “partial U-turn” on fire and rehire, with some issues still not settled.

Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett added: “Alex Cruz has misled the transport select committee by indicating that fire and rehire is completely off the table. This needs to be corrected.

“There are still too many BA workers facing threats to their wages and working life. These threats should be withdrawn today. To be clear, the fire and rehire threat still hangs over some BA workers.

"If Alex Cruz wishes to take this opportunity to say that he is removing this threat from our members then Unite is more than ready to talk.”

Beckett said any draft agreements with BA would not be finalised until Unite members have voted on them and agreed to changes to their contracts.

Cruz told MPs that BA had “reached agreements with unions in principle”, which meant there would be “no need whatsoever to issue new contracts… there will be amendments to existing contracts”.

He added that he hoped the “majority” of negotiation processes would be completed this week.