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Britons heading abroad once again endured huge queues at UK airports this morning – with the situation only set to get worse during the summer holidays after British Airways staff based at London Heathrow voted to strike.
More than 1,200 Heathrow check-in and ground-handling staff voted for industrial action yesterday in a row over pay. The GMB and Unite unions are expected to set strike dates for around July 22, when the school break begins.
They vowed only to call off the action if BA meets their demands within a week or so. If the BA walkouts go ahead, families could be forced to delay or cancel holidays – and face being stuck abroad if flights home are axed.Â
Unions only have to give two weeks’ notice of strikes. Customers whose flights are grounded will be entitled to receive a refund or be rebooked on an alternative flight on their day of departure, even if it is with a rival carrier.
But with airlines cutting their schedules due to staff shortages and airport flight caps, it is unclear whether there would be enough seats. It will inflict a huge financial blow on BA, which lost billions of pounds in the pandemic.
Some 550 BA flights a day take off and land at Heathrow, but this is expected to rise in the summer – and the airline is now drawing up emergency plans to keep as many flights as possible on strike days. Around half of these are short haul and the other half longer distance – and the action threatens to ground hundreds of flights in total.
It comes as photographs showed passengers enduring big queues at Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham airports once again today – in addition to Edinburgh, Glasgow and the arrivals hall at Heathrow Terminal Two.
One passenger at Birmingham tweeted today: ‘Congratulations Birmingham Airport, you now have a queue that folds three lengths of the airport! Second time this week you have failed your #SLAs [service level agreements].’Â
Those returning to Britain also faced possible disruption as Ryanair cabin crew staff began a three-day walkout in Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain – while easyJet’s operations in Spain face a nine-day strike next month.Â
MANCHESTER AIRPORT – Passengers queue for check-in at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 today as airport chaos continues
LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT – One passenger arriving at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal Two this morning said staff in the arrivals hall were ‘taking a lot of c**p from hundreds of very unhappy passengers who are rightly frustrated and getting angry’
BRISTOL AIRPORT – Once again holidaymakers flying from Bristol Airport experience lengthy queues before 4.30am today
BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT – Huge queues to get into Birmingham Airport this morning as Britons head abroad on holidays
EDINBURGH AIRPORT – A passenger flying from Edinburgh Airport this morning tweeted this picture of the security queue
GLASGOW AIRPORT – A passenger in a queue at Glasgow said today that it is ‘like a 1960s regional airport in a poor country’Â
MANCHESTER AIRPORT – Passengers queue for check-in at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 today as airport chaos continues
BRISTOL AIRPORT – Two holidaymakers sleep on chairs at Bristol Airport today as the airport chaos continues in Britain
MANCHESTER AIRPORT – Passengers queue for check-in at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 today as airport chaos continues
BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT – Britons queue for security at Birmingham Airport early this morning as they head abroad on holiday
MANCHESTER AIRPORT – Huge queues are seen again for check-in at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 early this morning
BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT – Britons hoping to go away on holiday this morning once again face huge queues at Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT – A passenger at Birmingham Airport this morning said it ‘took an hour to get through to departures’
MANCHESTER AIRPORT – Passengers queue for check-in at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 today as airport chaos continues
BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT – Britons queue to get into Birmingham Airport early this morning as they go abroad on holiday
The BA dispute is over a 10 per cent pay cut that check-in and ground-handling staff took during Covid as airlines tried to stay afloat. Unions want full pay reinstated amid cost of living pressure and surging passenger numbers.
Staff say senior managers have had their full pay restored. BA offered a one-off 10 per cent bonus, but this was refused. Talks between officials on both sides continued yesterday.Â
It is the latest blow for an industry which has struggled to ramp up operations as passenger numbers recover.
After carriers slashed thousands of jobs during the pandemic, hundreds of flights have been delayed or cancelled, huge queues have formed at airports and travellers have been forced to wait four hours or more for luggage.
The problems have largely been due to staff shortages after carriers slashed thousands of jobs during the pandemic.
Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, said: ‘With grim predictability, holidaymakers face massive disruption thanks to the pig-headedness of British Airways.
‘BA have tried to offer our members crumbs from the table in the form of a 10 per cent one-off bonus payment, but this doesn’t cut the mustard.
‘Our members need to be reinstated the 10 per cent they had stolen from them last year with full back pay and the 10 per cent bonus which other colleagues have been paid.
‘GMB members at Heathrow have suffered untold abuse as they deal with the travel chaos caused by staff shortages and IT failures.
‘At the same time, they’ve had their pay slashed during BA’s callous fire and rehire policy. What did BA think was going to happen?
‘It’s not too late to save the summer holidays – other BA workers have had their pay cuts reversed.
‘Do the same for ground and check-in staff and this industrial action can be nipped in the bud.’
She also told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme yesterday: ‘I would imagine there will be action during the summer holidays’.
Asked if she would book a flight in late July, August or early September, she replied: ‘Not at this stage’.
She said the union’s members have faced a 10 per cent pay cut as a result of BA’s ‘unethical approach during the pandemic’.
‘They want that pay to be reinstated,’ she added.
Members of the GMB voted by 91 per cent in favour of industrial action while Unite said 94 per cent of its members backed action.
Unite national officer for aviation Oliver Richardson said: ‘The problems British Airways is facing are entirely of its own making.
‘It brutally cut jobs and pay during the pandemic even though the Government was paying them to save jobs.
‘In the case of this dispute, they have insulted this workforce, slashing pay by 10 per cent only to restore it to managers but not to our members.
‘BA is treating its loyal workforce as second class citizens and they will not put up with it a moment longer.
‘Strike action will inevitably cause severe disruption to BA’s services at Heathrow.
‘The company has a short window of opportunity to reinstate our members’ pay before strikes are called. I urge BA not to squander that opportunity.’
The GMB said it has also started a consultative ballot with thousands more BA workers, including engineers and call-centre workers.
A formal ballot for strike action will begin in a few weeks if enough support is registered.
It raises the prospect of summer disruption on an even bigger scale, as it includes workers at Gatwick airport as well as Heathrow.
BRUSSELS – Passengers wait to check in at Brussels South Charleroi Airport today as Ryanair staff begin strike action
LISBON – People wait to check-in for Ryanair flights at Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport this morning as the strike begins
MADRID – Passengers are pictured in the Ryanair check-in area at the Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport this morning
The separate row is over demands for a pay rise in line with inflation.
Downing Street said strike action would add to passengers’ ‘misery’ at airports and called for BA to put contingency measures in place.
A No 10 spokesman said: ‘This is obviously a matter for British Airways and the unions and we would strongly encourage both to come together to find a settlement.
‘We don’t want to see any further disruption for passengers and strike action would only add to the misery being faced by passengers at airports.
‘DfT (Department for Transport) will obviously work closely to look at what contingency measures BA could put in place and we expect BA to put in place contingency measures to ensure that as little disruption is caused, and that where there is disruption that passengers can be refunded’.
A BA statement said: ‘We’re extremely disappointed with the result and that the unions have chosen to take this course of action.
‘Despite the extremely challenging environment and losses of more than £4billion, we made an offer of a 10 per cent payment which was accepted by the majority of other colleagues.
‘We are fully committed to work together to find a solution, because to deliver for our customers and rebuild our business we have to work as a team.
‘We will of course keep our customers updated about what this means for them as the situation evolves.’
It will compound fears that Britain is facing a summer of strikes as unions representing other professions also flex their muscles in pursuit of inflation-busting pay rises.
The National Education Union has warned that schools could be next in line for strike action unless ministers stump up ‘inflation-plus pay increases for all teachers’.
Unions representing doctors, nurses, civil servants and postal workers are also threatening industrial action over pay.
Some have even demanded settlements of 5 per cent above inflation – which this week hit 9.1 per cent.
A Government aide said the official independent pay review bodies were expected to recommend rises for public sector workers of up to 5 per cent ‘in at least some cases’, the Financial Times reported. These pay increases will have to come from existing budgets.
It came as the boss of the TSSA rail union, Manuel Cortes, said his union could team up with the militant RMT during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next month to ensure ‘there’ll be no trains running at all’.Â
Yesterday Mr Cortes said his union, which is balloting staff at Network Rail and nine train operators, could plot walkouts with the RMT to hit the Commonwealth Games, which begins on July 28.
Asked if the 10-day event, which England last hosted in 2002, will be targeted, he said: ‘That’s clearly a possibility, I rule absolutely nothing out.
‘It’s not inconceivable we will walk out at the same time. And I’m absolutely certain that if our members strike along with the RMT, there’ll be no trains running at all.
‘We’re probably heading towards the biggest strike wave on the railways since 1926.’
Like the RMT, the union is in dispute with Network Rail and train companies over pay and job security.
RMT workers will walk out again for 24 hours tomorrow having already gone on strike yesterday and Tuesday.Â
There are fears the union could call another round of strikes as early as July 9.
Meanwhile an organiser of Edinburgh Pride said it is ‘really quite sad’ that thousands are expected to miss the annual event due to tomorrow’s planned rail strikes.
Passengers across the UK will face more disruption this weekend as ongoing train strikes promise to halt thousands of services for a third day.
Jamie Love, marketing director for Edinburgh Pride, said his team are expecting around 5,000 from in and around Scotland’s capital to attend, compared with more than 12,000 people in 2019.
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