UK set to start New Year with airport strikes

Britons will find themselves faced with a series of strikes at Heathrow Airport, as well as several other air travel hubs in the United Kingdom, at the start of the New Year. There are currently three separate strikes in the works at Heathrow, after airport authorities voted to walk off the job in protest of planned changes to their pension schemes. A total of 5,000 BAA employees are said to be preparing to go on strike, according to Bloomberg News. BAA operates Heathrow, in addition to six other airports in the UK. The company, which was previously owned by the British, is now part of a larger Spanish company called Ferrovial SA. The strike is scheduled to take place on January 7, 2008, and will resume on January 14^th and January 17^th. On the first two days, the strike will last for 24 hours, while on January 17, those passing through the affected airports can expect to be inconvenienced for a total of 48 hours. In addition to Heathrow, the Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports will also be severely affected by the strike.

Brendan Gold, a union spokesperson, noted that the strikes will cause the complete “closure” of these BAA airports, since essential and emergency staff—such as firefighters–will also walk off the job. Chris Avery, a commercial airline industry specialist told Bloomberg that such a massive strike involving numerous airports in the UK would not only cause chaos for travelers, but would result in very significant losses of revenue for airlines. BAA, however, has not yet confirmed if it will be forced to shut down its airports. Damon Hunt, a spokesperson, indicated that there are contingency plans, but also suggested that BAA may still try to negotiate with the unions involved, in order to avoid such a massive disruption in Britain’s air travel industry.

www.baa.com