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British Airways said last-ditch talks on Monday to halt a strike by cabin crew were unlikely to succeed.The airline was going to London's High Court on Monday to try to block the first of four five-day stoppages on Tuesday, citing an irregularity in the Unite union ballot.The airline has already been hit by earlier strikes by cabin crew during a long-running dispute over pay and conditions and by flight disruption caused by volcanic ash from Iceland.BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said he did not expect talks hosted by the mediation service Acas to produce a resolution."I don't expect any progress today," Walsh told reporters. Asked about the court challenge, he said: "I'm going to take every option that's open to us to try and prevent this industrial action."BA stopped a planned strike last December after the High Court granted an injunction.Unite said on Sunday it had reached agreement in principle with BA over its plans to save 62.5 million pounds ($91 million) a year to counter falling demand, volatile fuel prices and greater competition.But the union said the main sticking point to a deal was the restoration of travel perks taken away from staff who went on strike in March.Walsh said the travel perks were not the issue."This is not about travel concessions, this is about a dysfunctional trade union," he said. "I'm an optimist at heart and I hope that common sense will prevail and this strike action will be called off."BA says it expects to carry more than 70 percent of its customers, or over 60,000 passengers a day, if the strike goes ahead this week. Seven days of strikes in March cost the airline 45 million pounds.Britain's new transport minister Philip Hammond urged both sides to keep talking."Think about the long-term interests of the UK, the UK travelling public, the employees and the airline, because actually they are all the same," he told BBC radio.(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths and Adrian Croft; Editing by David Cowell)
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