If you can avoid traveling through London’s Heathrow Airport on weekends this summer, go for another option. More than 2,000 security officers will be staging walkouts at Terminals 3 and 5 every weekend except one this summer, running from June 24 through August 27.
The strike schedule is:
- June 24-25, 28-30.
- July 14-16, 21-24 and 28-31.
- August 4-7, 11-14, 18-20 and 24-27
Aviation analytics firm Cirium estimates that about 4 million passengers, on 20,000 flights, are scheduled to depart Heathrow’s four terminals on the strike dates.
While no airlines have announced cancellations yet, a strike by security officers at Terminal 5 over the Easter holidays resulted in British Airways canceling hundreds of flights on short notice. And the strike this summer also will include Terminal 3, gateway to flights by American, Delta and United, Emirates, Qatar and Virgin.
**Update as of June 13th, 2023**
In some rare good news for travelers to Europe this summer, security workers at Heathrow Airport have called off the first in a series of strikes they had announced for the next two months.
The canceled strike, by more than 2,000 security officers, was scheduled for Heathrow’s Terminals Three and Five on June 24 and 25. It now has been put on hold while the union members consider a new and improved offer from airport authorities.
“Following extensive talks with the workers’ union Unite last week, an improved pay offer was made by HAL and, as a gesture of goodwill by the union, the initial strikes were called off,” the union said. But the rest of the series of strikes, scheduled for 29 days over every weekend but one in July and August, will proceed if this offer is rejected.
The current strike schedule is:
- June 28-30
- July 14-16, 21-24 and 28-31
- August 4-7, 11-14, 18-20 and 24-27
Unite members at Glasgow airport, meanwhile, have approved a deal that grants them a 7% increase in basic salary and allowances and a one-time payment of £1,000.
French air traffic control strikes
Union workers in France, meanwhile, marched on the headquarters of the Paris Olympics and slowed traffic at Orly Airport last week over changes to the national social security program, which would raise retirement age from 62 to 64.
Fewer protestors turned out than for previous actions, the media reported, but a third of flights at Orly Airport, and 10% of trains around France, were disrupted.
