UNIONS today warned Glasgow Airport could be hit by strikes after British Airways said it wanted to transfer hundreds of its ground workers to a private firm.

UNIONS today warned Glasgow Airport could be hit by strikes after British Airways said it wanted to transfer hundreds of its ground workers to a private firm.

BA said it was in talks to transfer some of its ground handling operations at Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester airports to Aviance UK in a move that would affect 730 jobs.

But the announcement provoked an angry response from unions.

One leader said: "There could be strike action. We cannot rule it out. Today's announcement has provoked a lot of anger among our members."

BA say 160 workers at Glasgow Airport - most in customer services, such as check-in duties - would be affected, along with 273 at Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

The planned switch to Aviance was announced after BA paid no-frills rival Flybe more than £100million to take ownership of loss-making regional subsidiary BA Connect. As a result, BA's ground handing services will be slashed 40%.

Ian King, negotiator for the GMB union, was in talks with airline bosses today after flying from Glasgow to Heathrow for an emergency meeting.

A GMB spokeswoman said: "This is clearly part of a major exercise by BA to withdraw from the regions and to solely operate out of Heathrow. We could end up with Heathrow Airways rather than British Airways."

BA has started a 90-day consultation on the plan. If a deal with Aviance goes ahead all staff will have existing pay and conditions protected under European work regulations.

Staff who refuse to switch employer will be offered an alternative BA job or a severance deal.

Geoff Want, who is in charge of BA's ground operations, said: "Our review has shown we can no longer sustain in-house ground handling at these airports. We need a cost-effective operation."