British Airways cabin crew will go ahead with a wave of strikes from today after hopes of a last-ditch deal collapsed.
The joint leader of Unite, Tony Woodley, had offered to suspend the industrial action if the airline gave back travel concessions, but the war of words between the two sides continued, with BA saying it was disappointed he had taken to negotiation via the media rather than through Acas.
BA said in a statement: "We had agreed to a request from Acas to meet this afternoon and are surprised that Unite did not take advantage of this.
"We have already offered to reinstate travel concessions to cabin crew once all elements of our offer have been implemented.
"Of more concern to us is Tony Woodley's comment to the media that he wants to revisit certain proposals in our offer, when previously he had indicated that these were agreed. This position reinforces our view that Bassa (the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association), at the centre of this dispute, is not serious in trying to come to a negotiated agreement with British Airways - and that Tony cannot control Bassa.
"We call on him to call off the strike action and return to the table with Acas to finish the discussions that started yesterday."
BA said its priority now was helping customers caught in the middle of the dispute, adding that its focus will be on flying tens of thousands of passengers in the coming days despite the strike.
"All flights at London Gatwick and London City will operate as normal. At Heathrow we expect to operate more than 60 per cent of longhaul services and more than 50 per cent of shorthaul flights and we will add to that schedule where we can."
Mr Woodley said earlier yesterday there was an agreement in principle to end the bitter dispute, and that "good progress" had been made in talks at Acas on Saturday before they had to be abandoned amid scenes of chaos.
Scores of members of the Socialist Workers Party invaded the talks and surrounded Mr Woodley and BA's chief executive officer Willie Walsh, who hurriedly left the building via a rear exit on Saturday evening.
Mr Woodley said the incident had been "catastrophic" for the talks, which ended abruptly.
Shortly after the invasion, BA attacked Unite's joint leader Derek Simpson for giving a "running commentary" on the Twitter website.
Thousands of Unite members will now walk out for five days from today, followed by two further five-day strikes in the coming weeks.