A four-day strike by Border Force staff at Heathrow over the weekend appeared to pass off with minimal disruption despite coinciding with the end of the school summer holidays in England and Wales.
The strike over changes to roster arrangements by 650 members of the PCS union at passport control across all four Heathrow terminals took place from August 31 to September 3.
A leading aviation source praised the contingency plans put in place by Border Force as “pretty sound” and said: “Border Force worked with the airport and industry on the plans.
“We didn’t expect any meltdowns or unmanageable impacts.”
The disruption-free weekend was in keeping with a summer that has seen vastly reduced levels of flight delays and cancellations compared with the last two summers, despite a few well-publicised incidents and continuing air traffic control disruption at Gatwick and across parts of Europe.
An airline source noted: “There has been progressive improvement, and it has been good overall. We had a couple of horrible years [in 2022 and 2023] and there was an enormous effort put in by everyone in the sector to make summer 2024 better.”
There was an enormous effort put in by everyone in the sector to make summer 2024 better
The initial recovery in air travel from the pandemic shutdown was marred by staff shortages.
But the source said: “It’s not just about the recruitment numbers, it has been about the experience of people and being better able to manage. We’ve seen no more disruption than we saw in peak periods pre-pandemic, when some of the [passenger] numbers this summer have been really high.
“We’ve come a long way in a short time and should be pretty satisfied. It’s easy to oversimplify and say ‘we’re only doing what we should be doing’.
“But we’ve gone from being at 15% of capacity to record numbers in two years. The industry has focused on resilience.”
However, the source warned: “We’re always sweating the assets. We have no head room in the system at all, so we’re always going to face problems.”
The PCS workers at Heathrow passport control have not ended their action, but now plan a work-to-rule and overtime ban until September 22.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We’re committed to continuing our conversations with the union.”
Image via Shutterstock / Yau Ming Low