The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Thursday January 3 2008
Newcastle airport is not owned by BAA and so would not have been affected by strikes planned for this month as we suggested in the article below. The seven UK airports operated by BAA are Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Southampton and Aberdeen. This has been corrected.
More than 1 million air passengers face a miserable start to the new year after staff at Britain's largest airport owner voted for a wave of strikes next month.
BAA runs Heathrow and Gatwick plus five other UK airports, which it will shut if unions go ahead with planned 24-hour walkouts from 6am on January 7 and 14, followed by a 48-hour strike on January 17. The industrial action will affect at least 1.3 million passengers, who will either have to book flights from alternative airports or journey by other means, while travel from BAA airports will also be disrupted on the days immediately after the strikes.
Unite represents 5,800 BAA staff, and the union called the strikes because the airport group closed its final salary pension scheme to new entrants. Brendan Gold, Unite's national aviation secretary, said: "Without doubt, in my view, it will result in the closure of those seven airports during that timeframe [and cause] a huge amount of disruption."
BAA was holding out for an amicable solution to the dispute yesterday and asked for the "understanding of passengers" as it continued talks with union representatives.
British Airways, BAA's largest airline, told travellers not to cancel bookings: "We are speaking to BAA to understand its operational contingency plans if industrial action goes ahead. We have not cancelled any flights at this stage, and therefore we aim to operate as normal." However, the world's busiest international airport, Heathrow, will close if the strikes take place. The majority of staff who voted to strike are deployed on security checkpoints, plus firefighters whose presence is mandatory in an airport.
It is expected BAA will be unable to recruit auxiliary guards or firefighters from the army - an idea mooted during the airport security crackdown in 2006 - because they are not trained to use x-ray machines or to handle civilian aircraft.
BAA's other UK airports are: Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Its terminals account for nearly two-thirds of all airport arrivals and departures in the UK.
The Association of British Travel Agents said that it would work with airlines to ensure that holidaymakers got to their destinations. An ABTA spokeswoman said: "Other non-BAA airports such as Luton, Birmingham and Manchester may be able to help out."
A January walkout will be the latest in a list of setbacks for BAA. It has struggled to recover from the disruption of the alleged liquid bomb plot in August last year, which cause a security clampdown which brought its biggest airports, including Heathrow, to a standstill.
Unite blamed BAA's Spanish owner, Ferrovial, for the dispute yesterday. Gold said BAA executives wanted to avoid strikes but were "dictated to" by Ferrovial chairman Rafael del Pino, who oversaw the £10.3bn takeover of BAA last year and is attempting to refinance the company's £9bn debts.
"They have bought the business and they are trying to screw the money out of it," said Gold.
Gold said BAA could easily afford to finance its pension scheme and defended the size of its strike mandate, which saw a third of BAA's Unite staff backing a strike on a 53% turnout.
The British Chamber of Commerce said the strikes would be a dreadful start for the economy in 2008, and cost millions of pounds at a time when the UK needed to "pull together" to avert an economic downturn. "The reputation of our airports in the eyes of international travellers will be further diminished when travellers get to the UK and are met by chaos," said David Frost, BCC director general.
Staff will be joined on strike by members of the PCS union, which represents managerial staff at BAA.
Cabin crew at Virgin Atlantic are staging separate 48-hour walkouts on January 9 and January 16, which will ground 10% of the airline's flights.
Other options
Airports not affected by the strike include:
East Midlands Flights to Acapulco, Gambia, Bratislava, Jersey, Norway, Tunisia as well as many European cities.
Manchester A wide range of destinations on all continents, eg Munich, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Atlanta, Brazil.
Prestwick Many European business cities including Frankfurt, Paris and Oslo.
Liverpool European destinations including Cologne, Madrid, Geneva.
London City Direct to a large range of business destinations in Europe and Scandinavia.
Birmingham Flights available across Europe and as far as the Middle East.
Luton Flights to Sharm El Sheikh, Tel Aviv, Dubai, New York and many places in Europe.
Newcastle Flights to Toronto, Cancun, cities in Europe and Africa.
Bristol Flights to Frankfurt, New York, Toronto and the Caribbean.
Cardiff Flights to destinations in western and eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.
Trains:
Eurostar services to Paris, Brussels, Lille and Calais.
Ferries:
Stena, P&O and Brittany offer services to many destinations.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
