LEADERS of British Airways cabin crew last night urged their chief executive to “come out of his bunker” and hold fresh talks as a three-day strike over jobs and cost-cutting came to an end.

Thousands of passengers who had their journeys disrupted because of the walk-out are braced for further problems because of a four-day stoppage due to start on Saturday.

Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, said he had not received any positive response from the company to his plea for fresh talks, and added that chief executive Willie Walsh’s silence was “deafening.”

BA said its contingency plans were continuing to work well around the world, maintaining that it had added extra flights at Heathrow and Gatwick because more staff than expected had turned up for work.

The two sides continued to clash over the impact of the strike, with BA accusing the union of publishing information which had “no basis in fact”.

Among claims made by Unite were that some aircraft had left Heathrow with their blinds down to hide the fact that few, if any, passengers were on board.

It is understood Mr Woodley has contacted TUC general secretary Brendan Barber about restarting talks which collapsed last week after BA tabled an offer Unite complained was worse than a previous one.

Mr Woodley visited picket lines around Heathrow Airport yesterday and addressed a rally, reaffirming that the union leadership remained ready for talks at any time before the next strikes.