Could BA's planes be grounded again at Heathrow?

Talks between Gate Gourmet and the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&G) are on hold following a partial resolution to the jobs impasse.

On Thursday night, the two sides agreed that staff at Gate Gourmet - including 670 sacked workers - would be given the chance to take voluntary redundancy.

The deal offers hopes that some of the axed staff may be reinstated. However, the issue of the return of alleged militant workers is still to be tackled.

BBC News looks at what could happen next.

What are the hopes of an early resolution to the crisis?

Pretty good. After four days of intense discussions between Gate Gourmet and the T&G, a partial deal has been brokered.

The two sides have agreed a framework which will include asking volunteers among the 670 sacked workers and the 1,400 employees still working for the company to take redundancy.

Some of the sacked workers could be taken on again, or offered severance pay.

Volunteers will be asked to come forward over the next few days, so the next chapter in the saga may have to wait until next week when Gate Gourmet has a clearer picture of where its stands with its workers.

However, Gate Gourmet remains adamant that it will not reinstate the 200 so-called "troublemakers" among the 670 sacked workers.

Gate Gourmet has secured a better catering deal with BA. Isn't the company laughing all the way to the bank?

No. Although BA now appears to be offering a better deal than previously, it has said it will not sign up to the agreed catering deal until the jobs row is resolved.

So the next few days will be vital to determine the caterer's future at Heathrow, given that Gate is determined to avoid allowing militants back into the company.

"The hardliners and militants are never coming back," Gate Gourmet boss David Siegel insisted earlier this week.

Meanwhile, BA is keen for the row to end quickly as it fears its ground staff at Heathrow airport could stage further sympathy strikes if Gate Gourmet workers are not happy.

Failure to sign the catering deal with BA would mean Gate Gourmet's UK division going into administration, the US-owned company has warned.

What would happen if talks with unions collapse?

Despite agreeing a life-saving deal with BA, it may renew its threat to call in administrators if a deal over the sacked workers is not agreed with unions.

BA has said it is confident that it will be able to continue to source in-flight meals from Gate Gourmet, even if the caterer goes into administration.

The first concern of any administrator would be to keep Gate Gourmet in business and sell it as a going concern.

However, if the administrator could not find a potential buyer, the firm might eventually have to cease and be declared bankrupt.

How likely is further industrial action by British Airways staff?

That depends almost entirely upon whether there is a successful conclusion to the BA/Gate Gourmet/T&G dispute.

If everything ends in agreement and enough Gate Gourmet workers get their jobs back, it would be highly unlikely that BA staff would walk out again on a sympathy strike.

BA staff walked out for two days two weeks ago in solidarity with the sacked Gate Gourmet workers.

The T&G wants the sacked Gate workers reinstated

Heathrow Airport is a close-knit community of workers, most of whom live in the surrounding London suburbs.

Many of BA's workers will know some of the sacked Gate Gourmet employees, both as friends and in many cases as family members.

The solidarity between BA and Gate Gourmet staff can further be explained by the fact that up until December 1997 BA used to make all its own in-flight meals.

One additional cause of future BA strikes could be the airline's forthcoming report into the first wildcat walkout, especially if union representatives or other ringleaders are highlighted for particular blame and censure.

Is BA an innocent party in all this?

For the most part, yes.

In strict terms, BA cannot be blamed for an industrial dispute at a totally separate company.

It is not the airline's fault that Gate Gourmet sacked 670 workers, or that its own staff staged a wildcat strike in response.

Yet the T&G argues - for a number of reasons - that BA should get involved and help settle the dispute at Gate Gourmet.

Firstly, the union points to the fact that BA is Gate Gourmet's main UK customer, and so the airline has a commercial interest in helping sort out the stand-off.

In addition, the union argues that historically Gate Gourmet workers were BA employees, and so the airline has something of a moral responsibility to its former staff.

Analysts have also said that the financial woes of Gate Gourmet's UK operations have not been helped by less generous contracts from BA.

Yet BA is far from the only airline that has sought to lower its supplier contract costs over the past few years.

Since the rise of rival budget airlines, BA and other traditional flag carriers have lowered their costs in order to compete.