BRITISH Airways has been accused of "butchery" after announcing plans to axe 5,800 jobs as part of huge cost cuts.

The airline, which is losing £2m a day, said the job losses, on top of 7,200 already announced, were aimed at helping to make £650m annual savings.

The total of 13,000 job cuts will include 400 pilots, 3,400 cabin crew, 800 customer services staff at Heathrow, 550 customer services staff at Gatwick, 1,500 engineers, 2,600 world sales staff, 800 cargo employees and 2,950 others, mainly among head office and support staff.

About 6,600 of the jobs will go from Heathrow, 3,000 from Gatwick, 1,200 from regional bases in the UK and 2,200 will go overseas.

It is unclear how BA's 1,000 call centre staff in Newcastle or its 200 ground and air crew staff at Newcastle International Airport will be affected.

Union leaders attacked the announcement as a "stab in the back" for workers and the GMB threatened industrial action if there were any compulsory redundancies.

Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said: "We expected mild surgery but what we have got is butchery.

"We will not be rushing to the barricades, but rushing to the negotiating table. On the basis of no compulsory redundancies and no attacks on our members' terms and conditions, we will help to achieve a managed reduction."

Roger Lyons, general secretary of Amicus said: "This is a devastating body blow to staff, who have acted impeccably in responding to the needs of the company to safeguard jobs over recent months."

BA chief executive Rod Eddington said the action needed to be taken to lead BA out of a "crisis".

The airline said it would restructure its European short haul business to compete with no-frills carriers such as easyjet and GO.

From June, business travellers and holidaymakers are to be offered lower fares, greater flexibility and more choice.

Mr Eddington said the package of measures was designed to return the airline to profitability following an analysis of its business, led by the chief executive.

"We started this review with one clear objective in mind - to turn this company around.

"We will remain true to our heritage of being a full service network carrier committed to customer service excellence and world class products."

BA is making a provision of £200m over the next two years for the restructuring costs.

Mr Eddington said BA would not become a no-frills airline and would not be launching one.

He said: "We will compete profitably and intelligently alongside them by adopting what they do well - online bookings, high aircraft utilisation and pricing simplicity.

"We will mix it with what we do well providing a great network with frequent flights from convenient airports, as well as delivering world class customer service."

l North-East travel specialists Team Lincoln are recruiting 75 staff for its call centres in Newcastle, Peterlee, Middlesbrough and Leeds.

Despite the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the US, Team Lincoln is experiencing encouraging sales across the business, including a 27 per cent rise in sales to Florida