British tourist warning as Heathrow strikes to cause ‘widespread disruption’

Heathrow Airport is set to be hit by major disruption as almost 800 staff are expected to strike across 10 dates in May.

Staff at the UK’s biggest airport are striking over the early May bank weekend in a move union bosses warned would cause “widespread disruption”.

Border Force officers are currently striking until Thursday, May 2 but this will impact arriving rather than departing passengers.

Refuelling workers will strike on May 4, May 5 and May 6 over conditions for new staff. The strike is expected to impact top airlines including Emirates, Air France and Virgin Atlantic.

Unite workers across several departments will then take part in strikes from May 7 until May 13. Affected areas include trolley operations, campus security and passenger services.

A number of airlines are set to be impacted by the refuelling worker strikes including some of the biggest names operating from Heathrow

Full list of impacted airlines by refuelling strikes

• Air Canada
• American Airlines
• United Airlines
• Delta
• Virgin Atlantic
• Japan Airlines
• Emirates
• Qantas
• El Al
• Singapore Airlines
• Korean Airlines
• Air France
• KLM
• Ethiopian Airlines
• Jet Blue
• LOT (Polish)
• Royal Air Maroc
• Middle East Airlines
• SAS
• Tap Air Portugal
• Malta Airlines
• DHL
• Aero Mexico
• Latam Airlines
• Air India
• Logan Air
• Bulgarian Air
• Uzbekistan
• China Airlines
• Air Mauritius
• Turkmenistan
• Avianca
• Asiana
• Saudi
• Tianjin Airlines
• Beijing Capital
• Rwanda Air

Unite has said the industrial action will “cause widespread disruption across the airport, leading to delays”.

Sharon Graham, general secretary at Unite, said Heathrow Airport‘s actions were “deplorable”. She added: “Unite is fully focused on defending its members’ jobs, pay and conditoons and our members at Heathrow will recieve the union’s unrelenting support during this dispute.”

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We are reorganising our operations to deliver better results for our customers. There are no job losses as a result of these changes, and we continue to discuss with Unite the implementation of these changs for the small number of colleagues impacted.

“Unite’s threats of potential industrial action are unnecessary and customers can be reassured that we will keep the airport operating smoothly, just like we have in the past.”