Scotland will be cut off for thousands of air travellers this weekend after British Airways said just 10 out of 108 flights would take place between Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and London Heathrow.

The cuts come amid the Unite strike over pay, job cuts and working conditions.

As the carrier insisted that from Saturday through to next Monday the majority of its flights remained in its schedule, travellers to and from Scotland looked set to bear the brunt of the inconvenience.

BA said it aimed to fly 45,000 passengers a day across its UK service, representing about 60% of customers. However, 30,000 a day will still be affected.

Just one out of 36 flights between Glasgow and Heathrow will operate this weekend, two out of 46 between Edinburgh and Heathrow and seven out of 26 between Aberdeen and Heathrow.

Willie Walsh, BA’s Chief Executive, said: “We are deeply sorry that our customers are the innocent victims of this cynical attack on their travel plans by the leaders of Unite. We will continue to try to prevent this strike taking place but we have reached a point when we must now offer some clarity to our customers.”

Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, accused BA of “looking for war”. He urged the company’s management to put the withdrawn offer back on the table rather than indulge in “macho management”.

Gordon Brown, having issued a rather guarded comment at the weekend that the strike was “unacceptable”, yesterday recognised the political damage the dispute could do Labour in the run-up to the General Election and so decided to take on Unite, which is the party’s biggest donor.

He branded its action “unjustified” and “deplorable”, which prompted some of his own Labour MPs to accuse him of over-reaction.

Paisley and Renfrewshire North MP Jim Sheridan, joint chairman of the parliamentary Unite group, claimed the Prime Minister’s comments were “extremely unhelpful”.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives accused the Government of being hypocritical – on one hand condemning Unite while on the other taking its money.

Eric Pickles, the Tory Chairman, called on Labour to suspend its financial relationship with the union.

In the first strike period this weekend, BA will operate all long-haul flights to and from London Gatwick and more than half of short-haul flights at the airport. Flights to and from London City airport will be unaffected by the strike action.

At Heathrow, the airline will continue to operate over 60% of its long-haul flights and, by leasing up to 20 aircraft with their own pilots and cabin crew, about 30% of its short-haul schedule.

BA said it had agreements with 40 other carriers that customers could re-book free of charge on to their services in the event of their BA flights being cancelled.