Planes may fly half full Wednesday amid strikes

News at Gatwick 28/11/2011

Severe travel disruptions at London airports : November 2011 : EasyJet eyes African carrier

Some flights bound for London may fly at only 50 per cent capacity on Wednesday to cope with immigration strikes.

Heathrow’s head operating officer, Normand Boivin, said that he had asked carriers to bring down ‘load factors’ in the effort of avoiding immigration queues lasting up to 12 hours on Wednesday. He said the situation could even be unsafe and that some passengers may need to wait on aircraft until the Border Zone is clear enough, as only half of the desks will be manned.

And Gatwick is also slated to see “significant disruption”, as chief operating officer Scott Stanley told reporters that although volunteers and airport workers would be on hand to provide assistance, they could not man immigration desks in the Border Zone.

The strikes planned for 30 November come via unions representing millions of public sector workers including civil servants, Border Agency staff, teachers and health workers following a move by the government to raise public workers’ retirement age and the amount of pension contributions they must make. Reports say about 2.6 million workers are to take part in the day of strikes.

Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have since announced that passengers booked Heathrow- and Gatwick-bound flights on 30 November will be allowed to make changes free of charge.

Severe travel disruptions at London airports : November 2011 : EasyJet eyes African carrier

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