Airline facing "fight for survival"
BA has called on its 40,000 staff to work for nothing for a month.
The airline which made the plea in its in-house newspaper British Airways News, said it was facing a flight for survival.
The UK national carrier posted a worse than expected annual pre-tax loss of £401m last month.
Willie Walsh, the carrier's ceo, has already said he will forego his monthly payment of £61,000 in July.
Keith Williams, its chief financial officer, has said he will also not take his a salary for the four weeks.
Mr Walsh said in the BA publication: "I am looking for every single part of the company to take part in some way in this cash-effective way of helping the company's survival plan. It really counts."
He said the airline's survival depended on "everyone contributing to changes that permanently remove costs from every part of the business."
But while BA said its request had been greeted positively by staff, unions which are already in talks with the airline over possible pay freezes and redundancies, have condemned it.
A spokesman for Unite, the biggest union at the airline, was quoted as saying: "Willie Walsh can afford to work for nothing, our members can't."
The plan asks the employees either to work free for one month or to take one month's unpaid leave.
The airline has not said how much it hopes to save through the initiative.
BA has set a deadline of June 24 for staff to reply.
Unions negotiating with BA which includes Unite and the pilots' union Balpa, have been told the airline wants agreement by the end of June.
Broadly the airline is seeking about 2,000 redundancies from its 14,000 cabin crew.
It is also seeking some redundancies from its pilots.
www.ba.com