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Heathrow and Birmingham won’t cancel flights due to Border Force strikes

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Last week the PCS union which represents the lion’s share of civil servants announced that Border Force agents would strike for eight days over the Christmas period.

The strikes are due to take place on 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st December at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports.

The potential impact of this could be huge. As we saw over covid, even minimal short staffing can lead to considerable delays at passport control.

Whilst, on the face of it, longer delays at passport control do not directly affect the operation of flights to and from airports, it can have serious knock-on consequences.

If airports become too crowded, airlines would be forced to keep passengers inside planes until conditions at the terminal quieten down. This has knock-on effects, increasing delays and even cancellations as aircraft cannot be turned.

When PCS announced the strikes, it was not clear if the Government would instruct airports and airlines to trim schedules.

Heathrow and Birmingham Airports flight schedules ‘unaffected’

Heathrow and Birmingham Airport have now provided some clarity, presumably as a result of Government commitments to ensure enough staffing throughout the strike period.

As a result, both airports have issued statements downplaying the strike action and saying they will not be asking airlines to cancel flights.

That means that all flights will proceed as scheduled, with no pre-emptive cancellations at this stage.

This is what Heathrow had to say:

“The vast majority of travellers will be unaffected by Border Force strikes. We are doing everything we can to protect a full flight schedule on strike days, so departing passengers should expect to travel as normal. Arriving passengers with UK, EU, US, Canadian and some other passports will be able to use e-gates as usual and their journeys should be largely unaffected on strike days. Border Force has contingency measures to ensure other arriving passengers are cleared safely and as quickly as possible. We are continuing to support them to strengthen these plans so that as few people are impacted as possible. If passengers who cannot use e-gates are concerned about travelling during the strikes, their airline may be able to offer them alternative travel dates.”

Meanwhile, Birmingham said:

Flights will operate as scheduled on days when Border Force employees go on strike.

The Midlands travel hub advised passengers what to expect when members of the PCS (Public and Commercial Services) union walk out on December 23, 24 and 25 and December 28, 29 and 30: 

  • all departing passengers to all destinations: unaffected.  
  • arriving passengers from Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands: unaffected. 
  • arriving passengers with biometric (UK and EU) passports: use electronic border gates as normal and expect some delays especially at peak times.   
  • arriving passengers without biometric passports: join the queue for face-to-face processing by border officials and expect a slightly longer wait than normal at peak times

Both airports are suggesting that slight delays are possible but that most travellers will be largely unaffected.

Crucially, all UK, US, EU, Australian, Canadian, Icelandic, Japanese, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norwegian, Singaporean, South Korean, and Swiss passport holders should be able to use the eGates as usual.

As per earlier press reports, it appears that the Ministry of Defence is training significant numbers to staff desks. According to Birmingham Airport:

“To keep the immigration and customs process working as effectively as possible on strike days, a contingency team of Ministry of Defence personnel will cover absent Border Force workers at Birmingham Airport. “

Category

General

Comments (56)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Qrfan says:
    12 Dec12 December 13:31

    “Crucially, all UK, US, EU, Australian, Canadian, Icelandic, Japanese, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norwegian, Singaporean, South Korean, and Swiss passport holders should be able to use the eGates as usual”.

    Well, “all” except for any family with a child under 12. Which is not really “all” at all over the Christmas holiday period!

    • Paul says:
      12 Dec12 December 14:01

      They have to be operational first
      T3 last Thursday CX251, 2nd artival of morning and 75-80% of egates not functioning.

    • Paul says:
      12 Dec12 December 14:01

      They have to be operational first
      T3 last Thursday CX251, 2nd artival of morning and 75-80% of egates not functioning.

    • Tom says:
      12 Dec12 December 15:47

      Quite!

    • NFH says:
      12 Dec12 December 16:26

      And from what I can see, the number of e-gates open appears to be related to the number of staff available to resolve any issues. So if there are too few staff, then many e-gates will be closed.

    • roro says:
      12 Dec12 December 19:09

      Arrived from Sydney at 05:30 last week and going on to NCL – no egates open for domestic transfers – 2 Border Force booths manned to cope with all domestic transfers whether UK citizen or not – took far longer than it should have and we were almost at the front of the queue – then the fast track security was closed because apparently we arrived “too early” – pretty shoddy to say the least

      • planeconcorde says:
        12 Dec12 December 21:55

        At LHR T5 I have seen transfer fast track security open at any point this year.

  • JDB says:
    12 Dec12 December 13:53

    Now most Spanish airports threatening strikes 22-23 & 30-31 Dec!

  • Paul says:
    12 Dec12 December 14:04

    So they won’t cancel!!! Hmm what happens when the congestion in the airport becomes so serious that they keep people on board aircraft? This happened before and that then leads to cancellations and delays. I’d argue that not reducing flying is a choice by airlines and consequently any subsequent delays or cancellations should result in U.K. 261 compensation as it was within their control to mitigate….. a pipe dream I know

    • NFH says:
      12 Dec12 December 15:20

      If an airport prevents an airline from disembarking its passengers, and this prevents it from embarking passengers on a subsequent flight, then the airline could successfully argue that the event is outside its control and EU261 compensation wouldn’t apply. All the other benefits of EU261 would continue to apply.

      • Track says:
        12 Dec12 December 15:49

        I dont think an airline can pass the baton this way.

        If a specialised engineer or pilot does not turn up for work, due to a prior night out — that is also an even outside of the airline control..

        • NFH says:
          12 Dec12 December 16:18

          Airlines are responsible for maintaining their aircraft, including hiring specialist engineers.

          Airlines are not responsible for running airports, immigration, customs, air traffic control, trains to/from the airport, or any other service on which a passenger’s journey depends, or bad weather or ash clouds. All of these are outside an airline’s control. There’s plenty of case law surrounding this topic.

  • Alan says:
    12 Dec12 December 14:04

    It’s been total chaos at LHR the last few days as it is, looks like they run seamlessly from the existing chaos to this new one. The reports on FT of how long it’s taking to sort rebookings are just shocking (staff at LHR on hold for 40 min or so to offshore call centre) – not sure how they’ll cope with any irregular ops over Christmas.

    • Track says:
      12 Dec12 December 15:53

      Btw, yes I had this problem several times by trying to change flight on the day.

      Apparently, BA ticketing team/back office unit are not able to process changes, so changing the flight 3-4 hours ahead is out of the question. The bottleneck is the ticketing who won’t be able to issue a ticket on time.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      12 Dec12 December 16:08

      Don’t assume the (self inflicted) issues BA has at airports are the same as other airlines have or indeed if other airlines are having massive issues at all.

  • The real Swiss Tony says:
    12 Dec12 December 15:04

    And of course the litany of folk whose passports are rejected every time at the eGates, only to be waved through the manual channel after some cursory check. My eldest is in this situation and it was never a problem until we renewed his passport. The chip is fine, just needs some common sense on terms of verifying his ID.

  • EOC says:
    12 Dec12 December 15:18

    Does anybody seriously believe this PR guff? I came thru T5 on Friday night , all gates bar 1 working. I am due back again on the 29th. How many would anyone like to guess will be operational?
    Without sounding too cynical , maybe just maybe the software will suddenly spring a leak the 23rd..

  • riku says:
    12 Dec12 December 16:51

    what is the technology behind the e-gates in the UK? From looking into the cubicle behind the e-gates, a border force official is manually matching faces against photos. I have not seen this in other countries. Either it’s done the same way and the person is hidden away (unlikely) or in other countries they have automatic matching between camera and photo encoded on the passport. But it seems this technology has not reached the UK yet!

    • Lady London says:
      12 Dec12 December 19:12

      it’s manual

      • NFH says:
        12 Dec12 December 19:26

        That explains why the number of open e-gates is proportionate to the number of staff on duty and why so many e-gates are closed even when there are huge numbers of arriving passengers.

      • Andrew says:
        12 Dec12 December 19:47

        Surely not manual, that’s a joke.

        • John says:
          12 Dec12 December 19:57

          It’s partially manual, the software can be set to a certain threshold for matching, so some people may get through automatically and the ones rejected by the software will be done manually (1 officer for 5 gates).

          • LittleNick says:
            12 Dec12 December 20:03

            Do you know how it works in countries overseas? Is it similar or more automated?

        • Lady London says:
          13 Dec13 December 19:12

          It’s manual.

    • TimM says:
      12 Dec12 December 20:12

      No, previous attempts at automation have failed. The ‘e-gates’ are 100% manual.

    • James Harper says:
      12 Dec12 December 22:02

      The UK government bought the cheap version unlike almost every other country. The egates are not fit for purpose. I pass through them in other EU countries often enough and easily enough and have been through them as far away as Australia without hitch but return to LHR and join the lottery….

      • JDB says:
        12 Dec12 December 23:41

        That’s utter nonsense, the technology the UK has is the same if not better than that used elsewhere but do indeed set a higher threshold for matching as referenced above. That is not a bad thing.

        • Paul says:
          13 Dec13 December 06:48

          Nonsense, usual English exceptionalism. E gate here are pathetic. I entered Australia in less than 30 seconds and was so shocked I presented my self to an officer as I didn’t believe it was right!

          I exited the EU also via very efficiently run egates in CDG with officers who stamped my passport thanks to that other stupendously dum piece of exceptionalism, Brexit

        • Harry T says:
          13 Dec13 December 07:41

          I’ve never had an issue with the eGates in the UK, either with my old burgundy passport or my newer black one.

      • Rhys says:
        13 Dec13 December 09:44

        To be fair, it definitely feels like the UK has had eGates for much longer than most countries, so the tech is a bit dated now.

        I had biometric boarding in Tampa recently and that was incredible. Just walk up to the gate and it recognises you and lets you through. Definitely next-gen vs the eGates we have.

  • James says:
    12 Dec12 December 18:54

    Any idea if Gatwick are striking too?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      12 Dec12 December 19:15

      Read the 2nd paragraph,

      • aDifferentSimon says:
        13 Dec13 December 06:38

        easyJet have invited me to cancel my own inbound flight on the 24th. So that’s what they are optimistically trying currently

        • Lady London says:
          13 Dec13 December 19:18

          This is what’s known as a clue.

          I’ll take a bet Easyjet

          (1) knows it can sell your seat for much more, than you paid

          (2) may have calculated that if there is a need to accommodate people in hotels due to irrops on 24th, this will mean at least 2 nights cost for this as no flights by Ez on 25th?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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