Thousands of families face wrecked summer holidays after pilots from Virgin Atlantic announced yesterday they are to ballot for a strike in July.
The planned action by up to 750 pilots will hit key long-haul routes during the school holidays.
These include Disneyland in California and Disneyworld in Florida, as well as resorts in the Caribbean and destinations such as Sydney, Hong Kong and Las Vegas.
The pilots, who earn between £58,000 and £110,000 a year, are angry at a 4 per cent offer made to them by Sir Richard Branson’s airline following three years of pay freezes, their union, the British Airline Pilots’ Association, said.
The ballot will start on May 24 and take four weeks to complete on June 21. Balpa will then have to give a week's notice of any industrial action which leaders say will take place in July.
BALPA said its members are voting on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action after failure to reach agreement on an 'overdue' pay and conditions settlement.
The union, which represents most of Virgin's pilots, said it was pressing ahead with a ballot after 'marathon' talks with the company which started a year ago.
The decision comes just days after union leaders at British Airways said they had struck a deal with the airline over its long-running cabin crew dispute, which is now subject to a ballot with union backing. That deal appears to have ended the threat of a summer of strife on BA.
Now it is Virgin Atlantic facing walk-outs by its pilots in the year it celebrates the 25th anniversary of its first transatlantic flight to Miami.
BALPA General secretary Jim McAuslan said: 'Pilots in Virgin have not had a pay increase since 2008.
'During the tough years pilots have made sacrifices to help the business on the basis that fair pay would return, but that hasn't proved to be the case.
'The company is offering pilots an increase this year of 4%, with 3% next year and 3% in 2013.
'The 4% does not reflect the fact that pilots have not had a rise since 2008, and the proposed 3% increases would mean that with inflation running at 5% and likely to remain high, pilots would, if they accepted these increases, be in effect voting themselves years of wage cuts.'
He added:' We do not want a dispute but to date there has been no meaningful movement by the company and even the involvement of Acas has not broken the logjam.
'With nowhere left to go we have been left with no alternative but to give Virgin management notice of a ballot of Virgin Atlantic pilots for industrial action.'
Mr McAuslan said: 'Virgin's pilots feel very angry and disappointed at the way they are being treated after their sacrifices over the past three years.
