As T5 security crisis looms, Virgin Atlantic allows rebooking (from T3) whilst BA (at T5) does not

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

• @mkcol says:

  27 Mar27 March 07:14

  Now I know why I couldn’t get Oslo flights on 1st April when I looked last week, had totally forgotten about the strike 🤦🏼‍♂️

• Sapiens says:

  27 Mar27 March 07:32

  Heathrow T5 security (even ‘fast track’) is a joke anyway. Hopelessly slow.

• Dev says:

  27 Mar27 March 07:41

  Fascinating that the airport has essentially split each terminal into a different collective bargaining group. Was this by design to divide and rule, or are Heathrow Security Staff employed as “different” organisations for each terminal?

  • Rhys says:

    27 Mar27 March 09:03

    Probably a leftover from the BAA days…

  • baec_newbie says:

    27 Mar27 March 10:41

    It’s understandable that staff would have fixed workplaces at one of the terminals. Commuting to a different one could make a fair difference to travel arrangements.

    • A says:

      27 Mar27 March 10:53

      Heathrow’s ability to tell guards to work at different terminals is one of the issues they are in dispute over.

  • A says:

    27 Mar27 March 10:51

    The union chose to balloted them separately, although they are all part of the same collective bargaining group

• The real Swiss Tony says:

  27 Mar27 March 07:44

  Thinking aloud, does BA have much of an incentive here to resolve the problem? Are there SLA’s in place with HAL that will be breached by this all going wrong – and what will BA recover financially from it?

  VS will be wanting to free up a bit of space to pick up those who have been disrupted and can stretch to buying a full fare ticket.

  There’s a proverbial elephant in the room here too, with that high profile Ant & Dec flight due to head off next week. Tabloids would have a field day if that gets tinned!

  • Mark says:

    27 Mar27 March 08:51

    It’s a chartered flight and they’ll all go through the 1st class security lane.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      27 Mar27 March 09:17

      That assumes that there are enough staff working to open the F wing.

  • The Original David says:

    28 Mar28 March 17:08

    Are Ant & Dec finally being deported?

• Froggee says:

  27 Mar27 March 07:53

  Weirdly, BA will still sell you a flight from E.g. EDI-JFK on Friday (via T5) just not LHR-JFK so they must have some expectation/hope that they won’t be cancelling all the short hauls.

  So if you’re a super important businessperson and you have to get to a destination that only BA serves then you might need to head to MAN, EDI etc first to pick up your Heathrow flight.

  (and then get stranded in the provinces- you’re welcome!)

  • John says:

    27 Mar27 March 08:23

    Is that because you don’t need to go through security at Heathrow when arriving on a domestic

    • Froggee says:

      27 Mar27 March 09:05

      It is, yes. But if BA ends up cancelling a bunch more domestic flights then they’ll not be able to fulfil these flights!

• Robbie says:

  27 Mar27 March 07:57

  So if we are scheduled to fly from Manchester to Heathrow and Heathrow to Dulles (Washington DC) on the 4th. How is this likely to be affected if things stay as they are?

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    27 Mar27 March 09:19

    Should be no effects as arriving into T5 from a UK domestic means you don’t have to re clear security if your nest flight departs T5.

• BJ says:

  27 Mar27 March 08:03

  Haven’t most recent disputes at LHR been resolved quite quickly, hopefully this will be too? I think the pandemic pay cut needs to be reversed and then that used as a starting point for any new offer. Failing to reinstate pandemic pay cuts just causes unnecessary bad blood between employers and employees. The travel and leisure sector has rebounded far more quickly and strongly after the pandemic than many would have expected with profits soaring as a result. Employers should remember that many of them were helped through the crisis by both their employees and the taxpayers so they should play fair. In an era when even short haul budget airfares often run to £200+ and budget hotel rates are similarly high the industry can well-afford to reward their employees.

  • The real Swiss Tony says:

    27 Mar27 March 11:25

    Ah, but you’re forgetting that “playing fair” isn’t part of the fiduciary duty of directors. They just want to maximise the take for their shareholders (and keep their own jobs & bonuses in the process).

• Heathrow Staff says:

  27 Mar27 March 08:08

  I’m staff at Heathrow Security working for over 17 years, during covid Heathrow took 22% of my pay, while management took bonus, We argued but no one listened. Now company wants more bonuses for the stake holders aboard while we only get 10% with term and conditions. All we asked for was 12.5% and company refused.
  You can have all the contingency in place, it’s never going to work, it’s not working now.

  • Bill says:

    27 Mar27 March 08:30

    Good luck.

  • SSR BAQ says:

    27 Mar27 March 08:35

    Solidarity.

  • JDB says:

    27 Mar27 March 08:39

    Most people here are rather conflicted as they constantly rail against increased airport charges (or cheer the recent cut), but that’s the pot of money that is needed to pay any increased settlement.

    • Ken says:

      27 Mar27 March 08:51

      Or the £4 billion paid in dividends over 10 years.

      And how much capital did the owners put in during Covid ?

      • Sapiens says:

        27 Mar27 March 08:58

        Award a state near-monopoly (LHR) to a private company (well, company mostly owned by foreign states), who use this power to pay their workers less while charging customers more.. but still take home large profits? Welcome to be corrected if I’m wrong .. but it seems this only works for one group.

        • JDB says:

          27 Mar27 March 09:04

          Are you suggesting a British government (of any political persuasion) would run this better, invest more or pay workers more? That wouldn’t generally be the experience of the public sector over many decades.

      • JDB says:

        27 Mar27 March 09:13

        @Ken if you are anti dividends providing a return to shareholders in a business, I’m not sure how you are expecting to get any reasonable private pension in the future if you have one as reinvested dividends will make up the lion’s share of any total return.

        For what it’s worth 10% of Heathrow belongs to the Universities Superannuation Fund – do you not want university staff to receive a dividend towards their pensions (and unfortunately they haven’t had one from this investment since the one declared for 2019).

        • ken says:

          27 Mar27 March 09:53

          And since USS paid £392 million for their stake in Autumn 2013, they have recieved £331 million in dividends up to 2020.

          Are there any price gouging, pay supressing monopolies that you won’t go into bat for ?

        • A says:

          27 Mar27 March 10:58

          That would be the Canadian university pension fund, and the other owners are the Chinese and Qatar states, imagine what they spend their dividends on!

        • Track says:

          27 Mar27 March 15:12

          10% USS ownership is no excuse to allow monopolistic gauge on prices today. The rest, 90% of 4 bln dividends went elsewhere.

          Plus it hardly makes a dent in the future USS liabilities. Those future liabilities are £75.8bn from Management Plan Monitoring Report as at 30 June 2022. They are now discounted at increased rates and while the monetary value of future pension preserved, the purchase power has been (and continue to be) eaten by inflation.

    • Charles Martel says:

      27 Mar27 March 09:26

      I think this is an issue with the public at large, ask them if they think nurses, doctors, teachers, policemen, etc should get a 10% pay rise and most will say yes; ask them if they want their taxes to go up 10% to pay for it and you’d get a no or at best a don’t know.

  • ZF says:

    27 Mar27 March 09:06

    I have to fly those days (albeit from T2), but still – do what’s needed – hope you get what you ask for

  • vlcnc says:

    27 Mar27 March 10:11

    Solidarity.

  • zapato1060 says:

    27 Mar27 March 10:36

    Solidarity. And so true as someone affected, you only really care unless it affects you.

  • NorthernLass says:

    27 Mar27 March 11:35

    Having previously had a career in law enforcement, my personal feeling is that you can’t put a price on safety and anyone doing this job needs to be well-paid and motivated!

  • Paul says:

    27 Mar27 March 12:04

    With you all the way despite personal costs to me and family.

  • Lady London says:

    27 Mar27 March 18:01

    Good luck.
    Sounds like the union is not actually asking for as much as they should.

    Thanks to private equity and other shareholder extractions, Britain is a $h1th0le for low-waged jobs.

  • Cat says:

    27 Mar27 March 20:36

    Solidarity from an extremely irate teacher.

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