It looks like the British Airways strike is now inevitable after the airline rejected negotiations from Unite, the trade union representing the carrier’s cabin crew. The airline said that the plans proposed by the union were significantly short of the savings they were looking for. In the union’s plan was a proposed 2.6% pay cut for the year, but the airline’s plan was able to save more without cutting pay for existing crew.

The collapse of talks means that Unite will probably announce strike dates for their 13,500 cabin crew in only days. They only have until Monday to decide on the dates, and they have to give a 7 day notice. If they announce the dates today, then a strike could happen as early as next Friday.

The union has already promised that they won’t interrupt travelers’ plans for the Easter holiday. However, the plans of more than 800,000 passengers are still threatened if they plan to travel between next week and the end of the month.

British Airways already obtained a High Court injunction to stop a 12-day strike over Christmas and New Year’s, but it’s not likely that they will seek further legal action for this one. Instead they have trained over 1,000 of their own volunteered staff to become cabin crew during the industrial action in order to keep as many of their long-haul flights operating as they can.

Additionally, the carrier has made arrangements for wet leasing at least 20 planes and crew from other companies. This is to help keep short-haul operations running from Heathrow Airport.