Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says Unite’s decision to strike over the Christmas and New Year period will "damage London’s economy as well as British Airways’ reputation as a first-class business and tourist airline”.

Lance Mercereau, director at consultancy firm Rosslyn Analytics, believes small businesses need to be proactive in identifying potential risks, such as the BA strikes, early on: “Our company won’t be impacted because, when BA announced in early November that a strike might take place, we made plans for staff to use alternate airlines for critical business meetings."

He continues: "I don’t believe small firms will be affected by the BA strike because, as a result of the economy, they are most likely flying with low-cost airlines."

Tim Duffy, CEO of MeetingZone, also says the strikes shouldn’t cause SMEs disruption: “If the BA strike will prevent you from flying to attend key business meetings, all is not lost. Meet anyway without leaving your desk. All you need is the plain old telephone, a PC/laptop and internet access. You can ‘talk’ to the meeting participants via audio conferencing and share information via web conferencing, just as if everyone was seated around the same conference room table. You may even ask yourself why you were going to spend time and money (not to mention the CO2 you would use!) flying to the meeting anyway!”

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