Travel misery as busiest week of the winter begins

After weekend fog wrecked flight schedules, airline and train passengers likely to be affected by industrial action

Around 10,000 airline travellers who were due to fly out from British airports over the weekend woke up on Monday morning still in the UK, after around 80 outbound flights were cancelled because of weekend fog. In addition, severe weather in the north-east US and a scattering of technical issues have delayed transatlantic flights.

For many British airports, the busiest day for the pre-Christmas getaway is Friday 23 December. The Unite union has called a 48-hour strike by 1,500 Swissport ground staff to begin that day at 18 airports across the UK.

Unite’s national officer for civil air transport Oliver Richardson said: “Our members are only taking this industrial action as a last resort in a bid to reach a fair settlement – our members have not had a pay rise since 2014.”

Talks are due to take place at the conciliation service, Acas. If the strike goes ahead, the main impact is likely to be on airports in the Midlands, north of England and Scotland, as well as Belfast International. But it will also impact Stansted, the biggest base for Ryanair — for which Swissport is the ground handler.

In previous ground-handling disputes, Ryanair has insisted that passengers take hand baggage only.

Also on 23 December, pilots working for Virgin Atlantic will begin an indefinite work-to-rule in a dispute over union recognition. The Professional Pilot’s Union (PPU), which represents most of the airlines’s 900 pilots, say they will work “strictly to contract”, which could involve refusing to be flexible in the event of disruption. Pilots can exercise considerable discretion on working hours when weather or other factors intervene.

Virgin Atlantic said: “We are taking actions to ensure our flying programme remains unaffected during this period.”

Unite has also called a strike of British Airways cabin crew who work for the airline’s Mixed Fleet operation at Heathrow for 25 and 26 December. The staff say they are getting “poverty pay” and feel compelled to go to work even if unfit to fly.

The majority of cabin crew, who joined before 2010, are not involved in the dispute. BA says all long-haul flights will operate normally. But 30 short-haul routes could be affected, including flights to and from Aberdeen, Lisbon, Manchester, Oslo, Prague, Venice, Vienna and Warsaw. A schedule for short-haul routes will be published on Monday evening. Passengers booked to one of the can reschedule, re-route to another nearby destination or claim a full refund.

On the rail network south of London, conductors working for the train operator, Southern, are striking on Monday and Tuesday as part of a long-running dispute about whether they or drivers should open and close doors. Southern is telling passengers they should ”expect disruption every day until further notice because of the refusal of drivers to work overtime and upcoming conductor strikes”.

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