Virgin Atlantic has announced that it will cancel three flights a day for the duration of the recently announced strike by members of the Unite union.

Airline employees will hold industrial action on certain days in January and while the carrier said it expects to operate the majority of its flights as normal, it will cancel certain services to New York, Chicago and Boston.

The strike action will take place between 06:00 GMT on January 9th and 06:00 GMT on January 11th, as well as between 06:00 GMT on January 16th to 06:00 GMT on January 18th.

Virgin said that it will give a refund to those booked on one of the cancelled flights, regardless of whether the ticket carries any restrictions. Passengers can also rebook for a different service if they desire.

"Our main priority now is to ensure that we can get as many of our passengers to their destinations as possible," commented Virgin chief executive Steve Ridgway.

"We do not want to let them down so we have put in place thorough contingency plans, which will enable us to run nine out of ten flights on each of the days affected by the action."

BAA airport workers who are also members of Unite are expected to announce the result of a ballot on possible strike action over the festive period later today.

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