Airport staff vote to strike over holiday

THOUSANDS hoping to get away for Christmas could face chaos after airport staff voted to walk out for two days from December 23.

Heathrow is expected to bear the brunt of the disruption, as nearly 500 check-in staff and ground crew members plan to strike over pay.

Three of Heathrow’s five terminals will be affected, as well as Gatwick and Manchester Airports, if the action goes ahead.

But last night, airport and airline bosses insisted they would cope.

Heathrow said i t had contingency plans in place to ‘minimise disruption for passengers’ and did not want to ‘raise unnecessary alarm’.

The Unite union, which is behind the strike, said its members who work for air services provider Dnata at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester had voted by more than four to one in favour of the action.

Dnata’s main customers include Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Turkish Airlines and Qantas Airways.

The union – which represents around a quarter of the 1,900 Dnata staff who carry out check-in, ground crew and cargo duties – said the strike was in protest at an imposed 2.2 per cent pay increase at a time when supervisors were being granted a rise of 4.5 per cent.

At Heathrow, the striking staff work in Terminals 2, 3 and 4. The walkout will not affect Terminal 5, where British Airways is based.