Heathrow Airport: Weekend of disruption feared as Border Force officers strike

Three-day walkout could result in delays to passenger journeys at London airport

Queues at UK Border control at Heathrow Airport in May, due to a glitch with the electronic gate system. Getty Images

London's Heathrow Airport has said it is working to minimise disruption to passenger journeys ahead of a three-day strike by Border Force staff.

Officers will walk out from Friday potentially resulting in delays. Previous strikes led to huge queues and delays for passengers.

Public and Commercial Services union staff in terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5 will strike from May 31 to June 2, as they continue their protest over changes to working conditions.

Border Force workers, who are employed by the Home Office, not Heathrow Airport, will also refuse to work overtime for three weeks from June 4.

“Border Force officers at Heathrow are due to strike from Friday, 31 May, to Sunday, 2 June,” said a Heathrow Airport post on X.

“We are working with Border Force to strengthen their contingency plans to minimise impact to passengers’ journeys.

“We ask that passengers use the self-service eGates if eligible, to reduce time at the border.”

More than 300 Border Force officers who are PCS members went out on strike for four days from April 29 at Terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5. This caused longer queues and delays at passport control.

Staff are taking action over a new fixed roster, which will make it harder for them to swap shifts.

The changes will see staff swapped to a system where they will receive extra allowance in exchange for their employer having more control over their shift patterns, said Civil Service World magazine.

Decades of flight: Heathrow through the years – in pictures

Heathrow Airport in London, the UK's busiest, has been a travel hub for decades. Here The National takes a look back at Heathrow through the years. All photos: Getty Images

An Airco De Havilland biplane of the British airline, Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, about to leave on the company’s inaugural flight from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, later known as Heathrow, to Le Bourget, Paris, in August 1919

Waterlogged runways at London Airport - Heathrow's original name - one week before it became Britain's main aerial gateway to the US in 1946

The new BOAC maintenance headquarters at London Airport circa 1955

The air traffic control room at the airport's new terminal in 1955

US film star Marilyn Monroe with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, after arriving at the airport in July 1956

An aerial view showing the runways in 1958

The arrivals and departures board in 1960

A new airport gift shop, selling items by Chanel, Wedgwood and Pringle of Scotland, in 1961

The Queen's Building and the No. 1 Building Europa at Heathrow in 1965

The Beatles leave Heathrow for Salzburg in Austria, to resume filming of the movie Help!, in 1965

Passenger terminal gates at Heathrow in 1966

Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC, holding up a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow in 1969

An aerial view of Heathrow in 1970

Passengers boarding the first BOAC Jumbo Jet 747 used for a commercial flight, from London Heathrow to New York, in 1971

Passengers going through the departure lounge at Heathrow in 1973

Concorde takes off from Heathrow on her first commercial flight for British Airways in 1976

Men at work finalising the Heathrow Central underground station before its opening in 1977

Queen Elizabeth II passing though the Tube gates at Heathrow Central station on its opening in 1977

An aerial view of Heathrow in 1978

Passengers waiting near a departures board in 1979

Holidaymakers waiting in the departure lounge at Terminal 3 of Heathrow in 1981

British Airways employees protesting at Heathrow in 1984

Passengers and staff observe a silence in Heathrow's Terminal One to mark the beginning of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997

Rower Steve Redgrave at Heathrow with daughters Sophie and Natalie and son Zak after returning from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with his gold medal

Spectators watch the last Concorde land at Heathrow in 2003

Fans surround the coach carrying the England rugby team at Heathrow, as they arrived from Sydney after winning the World Cup in 2003

Heathrow's Terminal 2 in 2004

Passengers queue to check in at Terminal 1 of Heathrow Airport during the Christmas 2006 and New Year period

Passengers wait at Terminal 1 on August 10, 2006, after airport security was raised to critical when a terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US was disrupted by police

Planes queueing to take off at Heathrow in 2007

The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow in 2008

Aircraft at Heathrow Airport in front of the London skyline in 2016

Members of Team GB arrive from Rio de Janeiro at Heathrow, after returning from the 2016 Olympics, which saw Great Britain's strongest performance at the Games in over a century

A composite photo shows planes taking off from Heathrow in November 2016. Forty-two planes were captured between 10.17am and 11.17am and a montage was created from those single images

Items are arranged during an auction preview at Heathrow in 2018. The contents of Terminal 1, which closed in 2015, were being sold

An airline passenger wearing a face mask pushes her bags through Heathrow's Terminal 5 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020

British Airways employees welcome Olympians returning from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021

Travellers wait in a long queue to pass through the security check in 2022

Under the previous system, officials could not be forced to work overtime. They could also choose to work shorter shifts across five days, rather than over a standard four-day week.

PCS has called the proposed changes “unworkable”, claiming these will have a “detrimental effect on all the current staff and leave nearly 250 without a job on passport control, including many with disabilities or caring responsibilities”.

Around 18.5 million passengers used Heathrow in the first three months of the year – a 9.5 per cent increase, during what is usually a quieter time of year.

The increase was in part been the result of a 40 per cent surge in demand for business travel between London and destinations in India, North America and East Asia, said officials.