British Airways cabin crew have set strike dates for seven days on March 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29 and 30.

Unite, the union representing 12,000 BA cabin crew, announced the strike dates today after talks with the airline broke down on Wednesday night. The planned walk-outs will include the two weekends before Easter and Unite said there may also be further action after April 14.

The union was believed to have submitted a proposal to BA that would save more than £60 million with a pay freeze followed by a pay cut but avoiding all the changes to working practices proposed by BA.

BA submitted a formal offer yesterday to Unite, which will be put to members on an electronic ballot by the middle of next week, before the strike action is due to begin. 

Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of Unite said BA's offer "falls short" of what the union wants and Unite will not be recommending it to members. He added: "We will be giving our members an opportunity to assess the offer and tell us what they think. We will abide by their decision."

BA was thought to have agreed to reduce the level of staffing cuts it proposed but by a smaller amount than Unite wanted.

A statement released by the airline said: "British Airways is extremely disappointed that Unite has announced plans for massive disruption for hundreds of thousands of our customers in the run-up to the Easter holidays. 

"Unite’s action has no shred of justification. British Airways’ crew are rightly renowned for their professionalism and skills. Our entire package for crew recognises that and is reasonable and fair."

BA said is plans to operate all flights from London City airport, including long-haul services to New York. From Gatwick, it plans to operate all long-haul services and about 50% of short-haul. 

From Heathrow, it plans to operate "a substantial part" of its long-haul and short-haul schedule. The statement added: "We are also in the process of obtaining seats on flights operated by other carriers to enable thousands of customers to fly to their chosen destinations. 

Unite's McCluskey said: "I am sure with their strike-breaking army some BA planes will fly. But I would not want to be flying on any airline that is not crewed by experienced cabin crew. It's not just about pushing a trolley up an aisle, they are trained to deal with all kinds of incidents."

British Airways' full statement is below: 

"British Airways is extremely disappointed that Unite has announced plans for massive disruption for hundreds of thousands of our customers in the run-up to the Easter holidays. 

Unite’s action has no shred of justification. British Airways’ crew are rightly renowned for their professionalism and skills. Our entire package for crew recognises that and is reasonable and fair. 

British Airways is facing two years of record financial losses. Unlike other businesses, we have avoided compulsory redundancies and made changes designed to secure a long-term future for our company and our staff. Cabin crew face no pay cut or reduction in terms and conditions – and remain the best rewarded in the UK airline industry.   

For months, Unite has been claiming that we breached individual crew members’ contracts by making minor changes to onboard crew numbers on flights from Heathrow. We have always said this claim was false. Last month, the High Court ruled that the changes were valid and reasonable. 

The changes save us more than £60m a year. We have made clear we would consider refinements of the changes, provided any additional cost was offset by other adjustments in the cabin crew budget. 

To date all proposals put forward by Unite fall significantly short of saving £60m a year. 

In addition, Unite’s plans would cut crew pay and allowances. The reductions required to generate sufficient savings would leave each crew member between £1,000 and £2,700 a year worse off. These proposals lack credibility, and Unite did not inform crew of them when it asked them to vote for a strike. 

Should a strike take place, we will do everything we can to protect our customers’ travel plans as far as possible.

We plan to operate all British Airways’ flights from London City airport, including long-haul services to New York. From Gatwick, we plan to operate all long-haul services and about 50 per cent of short-haul. From Heathrow, we plan to operate a substantial part of our long-haul and short-haul schedule. 

We are also in the process of obtaining seats on flights operated by other carriers to enable thousands of customers to fly to their chosen destinations. 

We will aim to give more details four or five days before the strike is due to begin when we will announce our revised flying programme. 

We will remain available for further talks with Unite at any time."