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After the long-threatened British Airways strike was voted in by members of the Unite union, the travelling public were left in fear of facing huge delays and travel chaos over the Christmas holidays. The strike had been planned to cause maximum damage to the airline, and BA knew it. So the directors will now be breathing a sigh of relief after a judge ruled the union’s decision to strike illegal.

If the strike had gone ahead, thousands of travellers would have been affected. The very minimum that could have been expected was huge delays, masses of cancellations and ruined holidays.

As soon as the strike was announced, there were widespread reports of other airlines cashing in on passengers’ woe and raising their ticket prices. Some fares were reported as going up by as much as 40% following the announcement of the strike, by industry experts who checked flights before and after it was announced, with Air France, KLM and Virgin Atlantic all reported to be increasing their fares.

But now any passengers who bought more expensive tickets will be doubly frustrated after the strikes were called off. BA had claimed that the 12-day strike was illegal because Unite had balloted members who were no longer employed, including 800 staff who were taking voluntary redundancy. The airline also claimed that many members had not been made aware that the strike was for 12 days.

In the end Mrs Justice Cox ruled that the members of the union had not been balloted properly and that the strike was therefore illegal, forcing it to be cancelled. The decision was described by Unite as a “disgraceful day for democracy”, but this is not the end of the story. The strikes are now expected in 2010, most likely in February.