British Airways has reduced its flight schedule due to planned strikes by London Heathrow airport employees during the Easter holiday weekend, the airline said on Monday, with the worker dispute over pay set to strain the country’s busiest airport.
Labour unrest due to discontent over stagnant pay rises when the price of goods is surging has had a severe impact on Britain’s transport system, much like most other crucial sectors like health care and education.
“Following Heathrow’s requirement for us to reduce the number of passengers travelling during the period of its employees’ proposed strike action, we’ve regrettably had to make a small number of adjustments to our schedule,” British Airways, owned by IAG, said.
“We’ve apologised to customers whose travel plans have been affected and have offered them a range of options.”
The statement followed a BBC report that said the airline was looking to cancel 32 flights a day to and from Heathrow from March 31, the start of the Easter holidays when more than 1 400 Heathrow security guards are planning to start a 10-day strike.
“We will not let these unnecessary strikes impact the hard-earned holidays of our passengers. Our contingency plans will keep the airport operating as normal throughout,” a Heathrow spokesperson said.
Unite, a union representing the workers who are responsible for checking cargo that enters the airport, set out the strike plan earlier in March, warning flights using Heathrow would experience severe delays and disruption over Easter.
Heathrow said it was deploying 1 000 more employees to mitigate disruption but said it might “take a little longer than usual to get through security” as was the case at any busy time.
Travel during the Christmas season last year was disrupted due to walkouts by border force staff at major airports, which saw military personnel stepping in to staff immigration desks, in addition to rail strikes.
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