The entire 11-member board of British Airways has agreed to work for nothing next month but is clinging to the free, unlimited, first-class travel perk granted to all past and present senior directors and their spouses for life.

Until now, only Willie Walsh, the chief executive, and Keith Williams, the finance director, had agreed to give up a month’s pay, cutting Mr Walsh’s salary this year to £674,000.

The move is the latest in a series to cut the costs of the struggling airline, in which 7,000 cabin crew staff have volunteered for some form of pay cut and 800 of them have agreed to work for nothing for between one week and one month. It emerged yesterday that in doing so, the 800 would also forfeit up to two days’ holiday entitlement.

In a statement yesterday, BA said: “The chairman and non-executive directors have volunteered to work for free in July. As stated in the company’s public report and accounts, non-executive directors are eligible for non-contractual travel concessions. Non-executive directors book their flights themselves and do so like any other passenger by contacting the BA sales team. They do not take precedence over other passengers — if there is availability on the flight that they want to travel on, they can book a seat. If it is full, they cannot displace another customer.”

BA’s premium-class passengers were down by more than 17 per cent last month. BA said: “All full-service airlines offer free first-class travel to board members and directors. BA’s non-executive directors’ remuneration is at or below the market median. The non-executive directors have not had a pay rise since 2006.”

All BA board members, past and present, can fly free in first-class anywhere in the world for life as a generous perk. Spouses also enjoy the benefit.

Current members of the board can take their children free, as long as their offspring are under 24. Under terms of the perk, directors are told that if there are paying passengers ahead also vying for the directors’ seats, they will be downgraded to business class.

The issue of free, unlimited first-class travel for life, has been a thorny issue for some time. Two years ago it emerged that Martin Broughton, the chairman, convened a board meeting to try to beef up directors’ rights so that they had equal priority to paying customers. BA subsequently backed down.

About 6,940 staff in BA, including cabin crew, baggage handlers and engineers, have signed up to a variety of cost-saving schemes, all amounting to a pay cut, in a move that the airline has said would save up to £10 million. All BA staff were presented with a range of salary-reducing options from which to choose to cut the airline’s costs. They were told that they had the option of choosing extended leave, becoming part-time, job-sharing, reduced hours and working unpaid.

Mr Walsh followed that up with an e-mail to BA’s 40,000 staff, on June 11, defending his pay, in a move that angered lower-paid employees. His e-mail said: “You may have seen headlines about my remuneration in today’s papers. To be absolutely clear, the only remuneration I will pick up this year is 11 months of my basic salary which equates to £674,000. In addition, I will receive 27,800 shares deferred from 2005/2006.”

Steve Turner, national officer for civil aviation for the Unite union, said: “It beggars belief, asking low-paid employees to work for free — some are paid between £11,000 and £15,000 a year and are struggling to pay their rent or mortgages — while this lot [the board] continue to roam the world for free for them and their partners. It is unacceptable.”

Although Mr Walsh and Mr Williams first offered to work unpaid in July, BA denied that either of them had pressed the rest of the board to do the same as a way of encouraging the entire workforce to do the same. A spokesman for BA insisted that the decision of the other directors had been made over the past few weeks and had been their choice.

BA lost £401 million in the year to March 31, its worst result in 25 years, amid high fuel costs and a fall in demand for high-margin first-class seats.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive