Thomas Cook pilots to strike on Saturday

Pilots working for the travel group Thomas Cook will stage a strike on Saturday as part of a dispute over pay.

Their trade union, the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa), confirmed the strike after five days of talks failed to resolve the dispute.

A strike on 8 September was the first by pilots at the company since 1974.

Further walkouts, on 29 September as well as 6 October, are also in the pipeline.

The next strike will last for 24 hours.

The dispute is over a 1.5% pay offer which Balpa has said is unreasonable and amounts to a real-term pay cut.

The union says it wants a rise in line with inflation - currently running at 2.9% on a CPI basis - and better travel facilities.