BA said on Monday that it could not confirm the exact number of job losses, but industry experts said the widely reported figure of 1,000 job losses sounded broadly accurate.

The company employs some 65,000 people, of which about 45,000 of them are based in Britain. A British Airways spokesman said the jobs affected would be "white collar" posts in Britain and not that of cabin crew or pilots.

"With the 12 per cent reduction in capacity, we are clearly going to need fewer people," the spokesman said. BA said last Monday that it planned to cut 12 per cent of its passenger miles over the next three years in a bid to boost its flagging profitability.

The company subsequently announced the cost savings target, which comes on top of a long running efficiency programme, which is designed to chop off 1 billion pounds offits cost base by next March.