British Airways passengers around the world face fresh threats to their travel plans after the airline’s cabin crew voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action. More than 7400 BA cabin crew on Monday voted in favour of walking off the job within weeks amid anger over working conditions and a pay freeze. The news capped a bleak day for airline passengers in Europe, with pilots at the German carrier Lufthansa going on strike and French air-traffic controllers announcing industrial action would begin yesterday.

The strike by about 4000 pilots at Lufthansa – which caused delays and cancellations at European airports – had been called for four days but was suspended after union officials agreed to resume negotiations with the airline. The BA vote came after Britain’s High Court blocked a previous planned 12-day strike over the busy Christmas period, declaring the proposed action illegal. Officials from the union representing the airline’s cabin crew, Unite, said this week that while no date had been set for the latest strike, under the law it had to be held within 28 days. The union had previously ruled out holding a strike over the Easter holidays in April.

BA described the planned strike, which observers expect to begin in early March, as ”very disappointing”.

Unite’s assistant general secretary, Len McCluskey, said that 81 per cent of the 9200 cabin crew who voted in the ballot were in favour of striking but the union would continue talks with BA management to resolve the dispute. ”We can only hope that British Airways management will now recognise that the only way to resolve this dispute is through negotiation, not through litigation and certainly not through intimidation,” he said.

Before the results of the strike ballot were announced, BA threatened to take away generous travel perks for workers who walked off. It has also been training pilots and other staff to replace striking crew if needed. BA condemned the strike as ”completely unjustified” and reiterated its hope that the dispute could be resolved through talks.

”We will not allow Unite to ruin this company,” the airline said. ”Should a strike take place, we will do everything we can to protect our customers’ travel plans as far as possible. In the meantime, we continue to run our business and our flights are operating as normal.”

BA’s cabin crew are angry at the airline’s move in November to cut the number of cabin crew on long-haul flights from 15 to 14 and introduce a two-year pay freeze. Britain’s High Court ruled on February 19 that the airline had the right to make the changes to save money. However, Unite says it was not properly consulted about the changes by the airline, which made a £50 million ($86 million) pre-tax loss for the three months to December 2009.