Advisory officials have been called in to try to prevent a British Airways strike which threatens to bring cancellations and major delays to flights between Bermuda and the UK.

Union officials earlier this week declared a series of three-day walkouts — involving thousands of cabin crew — would begin next Monday.

It means BA flights to and from London are set to be severely disrupted on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, as well as on February 6 and 7, and February 13 and 14.

BA also faces action on each of the next three Mondays, but there will be no repercussions on the Island as the service does not operate here on those days.

Now conciliation service Acas — a mediator between unions and management in the UK — has been asked to step in to help with the talks, which centre around sickness, pay and staff issues. BA officials remain hopeful a strike can be averted but are already working on a contingency plan to keep disruption to a minimum.

Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) members have vowed to halt hundreds of short and long-haul flights from Gatwick, Heathrow and Glasgow — meaning passengers to and from Bermuda would have to make inconvenient diversions via North America.

Business leaders fear such a move would throw the Island’s vital connection with Europe into temporary disarray and have repeatedly called for BA’s staff and bosses to settle their differences.

British Airways’ spokeswoman in Bermuda, Marianne Wilcox, said last night: “It’s difficult for us because we are subject to whatever happens in the UK. “We hope the strike can be averted because if it goes ahead we will definitely be affected.

“Hopefully they can operate some flights with cabin crew management — we are working on a contingency plan at the moment.”

BA officials said they were willing to meet Acas officials at any time to explore means of resolving the dispute.

Willie Walsh, British Airways chief executive, said: “A strike would be completely unnecessary and unjustified. “I am convinced we can settle the issues at the centre of this dispute through sensible discussion and negotiation.

“Unfortunately because of the nature of the demands put forward by the T&G cabin crew union in recent days, we have not yet been able to find a solution — or engage in the kind of positive dialogue we have achieved with other groups of employees. We believe the answer must come through discussion, not confrontation — so we have asked Acas to assist us in taking the process forward.”

The strike comes after staff claimed managers capped pay by limiting promotion opportunities and forced them to work while unwell under new sickness absence rules. An overwhelming 96 percent voted for industrial action in a ballot of the more than 11,000 cabin crew.

T&G officials say the first three-day strike would run from 12.01 a.m. on Monday to 11.59 p.m. on Wednesday and have pledged it will “almost totally disrupt BA services”.

Further three-day strikes will be held on the same three days in the two subsequent weeks if the dispute is not resolved, they warn.

T&G deputy general secretary Jack Dromey said: “BA management have simply failed to engage with the union in negotiations on our compromise proposals, and appear unwilling to listen to this loyal, professional and hard-working group of employees. Indeed, managers have preferred to provoke.

“Our members are fed up with being bullied into coming to work when sick and with the divisions caused by poverty-level new-entrant pay scales.

“They see customer care being cut and the airline’s reputation damaged by bungling management. “BA now has seven days to take their responsibilities seriously and work with the union to avert disruption to services and inconvenience to passengers. We are ready to resume talking at any time.”