London Heathrow has vowed that the “vast majority” of travellers will not have their flights affected by a planned strike by Border Force staff over Christmas.
Members of the PCS union who staff passport control desks at six UK airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, are due to walk out from 23-26 December and then on 28-31 December.
Heathrow said it was “doing everything we can to protect a full flight schedule on strike days, so departing passengers should expect to travel as normal”.
The airport stressed that arriving passengers with UK, EU, US, Canadian and some other passports will be able to use its e-gates as usual. Heathrow added that the Border Force was planning some contingency measures on the strike days to “ensure other arriving passengers are cleared safely and as quickly as possible”.
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: “We have extra people in the terminals on the busiest days, including me and my management team, to ensure we get people on their way as smoothly as possible.
“We are doing everything we can to protect full operating schedules on Border Force strike days and departing journeys and the vast majority of arriving journeys should be unaffected.”
The airport has also issued advice to travellers using the airport in the next few weeks, including arriving no earlier than three hours before a long-haul flight and two hours ahead of a short-haul departure. Passengers are also being urged to check their eligibility to use eGates when arriving at Heathrow.