The pay agreement of the BA pilots is fair, says the boss of the airline

The boss of IAG, owner of British Airways, said that a compensation deal offered to his pilots was "fair", adding that he hoped strikes could be avoided this summer.

British Airways will resume discussions with the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) on Friday.

Balpa members rejected an offer of increase of 11.5% over three years.

However, Willie Walsh, director of IAG, told the BBC: "I think the proposed wage deal is a fair deal."

Earlier this week, BA lost a legal battle in the Court of Appeal to end the strike after filing an injunction.

• British Airways pilots ready for summer strike
• British Airways fined £ 183 million for data breach

The decision allowed Balpa members to withdraw, potentially during the busy period of August.

Mr Walsh told the BBC's Today program that he hoped that an agreement could be reached with the union representatives.

"It's clear that this is a problem that British Airways faces, nobody wants the uncertainty that the strike brings to the company," he said.

"We are working closely with the pilots' union, the British Airways representatives have been meeting with them all day yesterday and will be meeting all day today."

However, he said the current wage offer – which has been accepted by Unite unions and GMB – should not change.

"British Airways has a responsibility to all BA employees, and I am to all employees in the group, and I think the proposed remuneration contract is a fair deal."

Data breach

In the results released on Friday, IAG said that BA would "vigorously defend" a record fine of £ 183 million imposed by the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) following a serious violation of data last year.

BA was penalized after it appeared that users of his website had been redirected to a fraudulent site where data of about 500,000 customers were collected by hackers.

However, IAG has denied British Airways its failure to comply with its obligations under the UK's General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act and therefore use "all available remedies". against the fine imposed by the ICO.

For the first half of the year, IAG recorded a 7.2% increase in sales, to 12 billion euros (10.9 billion pounds sterling), while its pre-tax profits are from 1.6 billion euros to 1 billion euros.

AGI shares rose 3.24% in early trading to 426.9%.