LONDON (Bloomberg) — British Airways Plc's 13,000 flight attendants will vote on strike action next week after talks on crewing levels broke down. German competitor Deutsche Lufthansa AG is also facing a stoppage in a dispute with 4,500 pilots.

Negotiations with British Airways ended on January 15 and no date has been set for a further meeting, the Unite union, which represents the cabin crew, said yesterday. A vote last month for a strike over Christmas was declared invalid by a UK court.

BA and Lufthansa are seeking to slash expenses after the global recession sent traffic tumbling. The German company's pilots have begun voting on a walkout after failing to secure guarantees prohibiting flight crews at the group's BMI, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines units from operating services for the main airline and its cargo and low-cost subsidiaries.

"Management sees this as the optimum time to push for a lower cost base," said Andrew Lobbenberg, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc with "buy" ratings on the carriers. "But the sides need to come to deals involving tradeoffs between changes in working practice and improved job security. Otherwise you end up in a pact of mutual self destruction." The dispute at British Airways concerns the introduction in November of working practices that cut at least one flight attendant on each long-haul service from its London Heathrow hub. Judge Laura Cox ruled that vote void on December 17 because the union included people who had agreed to leave the airline.

"We have been engaged in intensive discussions over the last few days, but unfortunately we have not been able to secure an agreement," Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said yesterday in a statement. "We therefore have to honour our commitment to give our members the voice they were denied by the courts before Christmas, and hold a fresh ballot."

Passenger traffic at British Airways, Europe's third-largest airline after Air France-KLM Group and Lufthansa, fell four percent last month from a year earlier, the fifth consecutive monthly decline, as the dispute with its cabin crew intensified.

The 12-day walkout planned for December 22 would have disrupted travel for more than one million people over the Christmas period. "We are saddened but not surprised that Unite has called another strike ballot," BA said yesterday in an e-mailed statement, adding that the decision calls into question the union's "good faith" in last week's negotiations. The company said it remains available for talks at any time without preconditions.

British Airways reported a record £217 million ($355 million) loss for the first half ended September 30, prompting chief executive officer Willie Walsh to deepen efforts to cut costs.

Stoppages at Lufthansa may begin after voting ends on February 17, Vereinigung Cockpit union spokesman Jan Krawitz said yesterday.

Lufthansa aims to shave 1 billion euros from costs by the end of next year, including a 20 percent cut in the workforce. It has been negotiating with Vereinigung Cockpit since May, and the union says talks failed last month. Krawitz said pilots may also now reverse their willingness to go without a pay raise.

The strike vote "sends the wrong signal at the wrong time" as the airline industry struggles with traffic declines, Lufthansa said in a statement yesterday. Preparations for a walkout are "incomprehensible" because pilots enjoy excellent working conditions and there are no plans to impose compulsory firings, the company said.