LONDON // Airline passengers flying to or from London today were expected to face severe delays because of a strike by immigration and customs officers.
The airport staff are among 750,000 government workers and teachers threatening to strike today over government plans to get them to pay more for their state-subsidised pensions.
Heathrow is expected to be particularly hard hit, even though managers and other backroom staff will stand in to check passports and luggage.
Flights to the Gulf are also likely to suffer at a time when many students are returning at the end of the school year and passengers have been advised, where possible, to switch their flights to other days.
The fear is that arrival halls will become so clogged that passengers will be forced to remain aboard incoming flights to avoid adding to the crush, with a subsequent knock-on effect for departing flights.
Passengers from non-EU countries - whose passports and luggage are subjected to far greater checks than EU nationals - are likely to be worst affected by the action.
A spokeswoman for the UK Border Agency said yesterday that the effect on the half-million passengers due to fly in to and out of the UK today will depend on how many staff actually decide to join the strike.
Jonathan Sedgwick, the acting chief executive of the agency, said: "We will do everything we can to minimise disruption and inconvenience to travellers, but our priority will always be to ensure that the UK border remains secure."
A spokesman for BAA, the company that operates Heathrow and Stansted airports among others, said: "We have been informed by UK Border Agency that arriving passengers should expect delays at the UK border on Thursday as a result of industrial action by immigration officers.
"UK Border Agency is advising that passengers who can do so may wish to travel on other dates."
British Airways said in a statement: "We are liaising closely with the UK Border Agency and airport owners to minimise potential inconvenience to our customers.
"This is clearly an issue beyond our control but we are doing everything we can to protect our customers."
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS union that called the strike, said that attempts to train managers to take over as passport checkers would not prevent delays.
"It is likely that there will be severe disruptions and delays affecting both ports and airports," he added.
UK-bound flights operated by the UAE's two main carriers, Emirates and Etihad Airways, will be unaffected by the strike action, representatives said yesterday.
"All our flights are operating as scheduled," said a spokeswoman for Emirates, which flies to London, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow.
A spokesman for the Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad, which flies to London and Manchester, said: "We will do everything possible to ensure our guests travelling through or from these airports encounter minimal disruption."
Etihad will have extra staff on duty at Heathrow, Manchester and Abu Dhabi to help customers re-route or rebook flights.
"All passengers travelling through these airports will be kept abreast of events," the spokesman said.
* With additional reporting by Nadeem Hanif
