British Airways cabin crew have rejected the airline's ‘final' pay offer of a 2.9% rose next year and 3% the year after.

Almost half the 11,000 affected Unite union members rejected the proposal by, 3419 votes to 1,686. The no vote increases the chances of more strike action.

However, BA have said they are encouraged by the result as the number of votes cast - just over 5,000 - represented less than half of the unionised cabin crew and was well below previous ballots that saw more than 70% of them express their views.

Since March, the union has taken strike action on 22 days in a bitter industrial dispute over job cuts and working conditions that has cost BA more than £150m.