Massive disruptions are expected on British Airways flights over the Christmas and New Year holidays after cabin crews voted in favour of strike action in protest over pay.

"After long discussions... we are planning to withdraw our labor for a period of 12 days starting December 22," Britain's biggest trade union Unite said in a statement after staff voted 9-1 in favour of striking.

The announcement is a major blow for the beleagured airline, which is already facing a 600-million-pound ($975 million, 666 million euros) loss this year.

"We do not take the decision to strike lightly, especially during the financial strife that the company finds itself in," Unite said in its statement. A total of 10,288 cabin crew voted, with 92.5 percent in favor of strike action.

"Bad news"

Ahead of the result of the ballot, BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh admitted he was preparing himself for "bad news." "This is a critical day for the future of British Airways," Walsh wrote in the British Daily Mail newspaper Monday.

The decisive vote came after long and tense negotiations on cost-cutting measures. The airline, which announced a merger with Spain's Iberia in November, is currently reportedly losing around 1.6 million pounds a day.

It has a pension deficit of 3.7 billion pounds and made a pre-tax loss of 300 million pounds in the first six months of the current financial year, which ends at the end of March 2010.

bk/dpa/AFP

Editor: Sonia Phalnikar