British Airways (BA) is meeting trade unions today to discuss a plan by the carrier to tackle its budget deficit, a union spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman for the GMB union said talks on the pension scheme had been ongoing with BA for many months.
"There is a meeting between BA and all the unions on Thursday," she said last night.
Her comments came after BA said it had agreed to make a one-off injection of £800 million and pay up to £50 million a year for three years to tackle its £2.1-billion pension deficit.
The company said it agreed the funding plan with the trustees of its main New Airways Pension Scheme. It still needs to reach an agreement with the unions.
In a sign of possible trouble ahead, however, the Timessaid the GMB union had threatened to ballot members over strike action if BA failed to back down on its pension deficit-cutting plans.