British Airways said it would fly more than three quarters of its customers during a four-day strike by cabin staff which starts this weekend.

The country’s biggest trade union, Unite, staged a similar strike last week in a long-running dispute over British Airways’s imposed changes to staff pay and working conditions.

‘British Airways will fly more than 75 per cent of customers booked to travel between tomorrow and March 30, despite these four days being targeted for strikes by Unite,’ the airline said in a statement on Friday. ‘Of approximately 240,000 customers originally booked to travel in the strike period, the airline expects to fly more than 180,000.’

The loss-making carrier added that another 18 per cent of its customers have been rebooked to travel with alternative airlines, or have switched their travel dates to avoid the strike period.

British Airways said it was hoping to fly a full and normal schedule from London’s City and Gatwick airports over the next four days. At London Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest airports, the carrier said it would operate 70 per cent of long-haul and 55 per cent of its short-haul flights.