By Alistair Osborne, Business Editor Published: 7:37PM GMT 06 Nov 2009  Willie Walsh urged the airline's 14,000 cabin crew to step back from their threatened pre-Christmas industrial action, stressing that "further cost reduction is essential" in a year when BA is facing a £1bn drop in revenues.  Mr Walsh maintained his uncompromising stance over changes to cabin crew manning and allowances due from November 16, which have provoked union Unite to say it will ballot for a strike.  Stressing that BA was yet to receive official notification of the ballot, Mr Walsh said: "I'm not going to stop managing the business to meet the challenges we face. That [the strike threat] is irrelevant to me. I don't give any consideration to that at all." BA declined to discuss contingency plans.  The results, the worst ever for BA's summer trading period, compare to a £52m pre-tax profit last time and reflect, Mr Walsh said, the "worst trading ever in the history of the aviation industry". Revenues fell 13.7pc to £4.1bn, with operating losses of £111m comparing to last time's £140m profits. The figures include a £48m restructuring charge after cutting 1,900 jobs.  Analysts were heartened, however, by the cost cuts and glimmers of recovery in its long-haul first- and business-class traffic - the mainstay of the business. Mr Walsh said: "There's evidence that things are not getting worse." The shares rose 12½ to 198.8p.  BA has made savings of £275m in the first six months – already well ahead of the £220m full-year target outlined in March. A further 3,000 jobs will go by March.  Cutting summer schedule capacity by 3.5pc and winter by 6pc has helped BA begin to restore average fares, with revenue per seat on long-haul premium traffic returning to 2007 levels. Mark McVicar, an analyst at Nomura, said: "That's come a lot quicker than anyone expected and is why the share price is up."  Mr Walsh said he was still confident of sealing an all-share merger with Spanish carrier Iberia and had no intention of giving up after 16 months of negotiations.  "That would be like running a marathon and giving up 100m from the finishing line," Mr Walsh said.
The chief executive of British Airways said union strike threats would not    deflect him from further cost cuts as he unveiled record half-year losses of    &pound;292m pre-tax.