Heathrow workers to strike in run-up to Fifa World Cup in Qatar

The action will affect passengers with several airlines, including Qatar Airways and Emirates

A British Airways passenger plane prepares to land at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in west London. Reuters

Hundreds of employees at Europe’s busiest airport will walk out this month in the run-up to the football World Cup in Qatar over demands for better pay.

Unite said 700 workers involved in ground handling, airside transport and cargo, and employed by Emirates Group's airport services subsidiary dnata and Menzies, will strike for three days at Heathrow, starting from November 18.

Several airlines will be affected by the action, including Qatar Airways, Emirates, Virgin, Singapore Airlines and Cathay-Pacific.

The Fifa World Cup in Qatar begins in the middle of the strike on November 20.

"Strike action will inevitably cause disruption, delays and cancellations to flights throughout Heathrow, with travellers to the World Cup particularly affected," Unite regional officer Kevin Hall said in the statement.

The union said the strike action would lead to disruption, cancellations and delays at Heathrow terminals 2, 3 and 4.

It said Qatar Airways, which has scheduled an additional 10 flights a week during the World Cup, would be particularly affected.

Heathrow declined to comment on the strikes, while dnata and Menzies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Entry rules were changed this week for fans travelling to the World Cup in Qatar.

Shoppers at Souq Waqif, a traditional market in Doha, Qatar, home to the 2022 Fifa World Cup. EPA

World Cup fans without tickets will be allowed to enter Qatar from December 2, meaning fans without tickets can enjoy all the football fever of the knockout stages.

In October it was revealed that Heathrow’s losses had increased, despite an improvement in passenger numbers.

About 18 million people passed through Heathrow this summer, making it the busiest airport in Europe over the period.

But the airport's underlying losses increased to £442 million ($503m) in the year to date “as regulated income fails to cover costs, adding to the £4 billion in the prior two years”, it said.

“Headwinds of a global economic crisis, war in Ukraine and the impact of Covid-19 mean we are unlikely to return to pre-pandemic demand for a number of years, except at peak times,” it said in a statement.

Heathrow recently lifted a passenger cap imposed in July to limit the number travelling to 100,000 per day amid staff shortages.

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

“We are working with airlines to agree a highly targeted mechanism that, if needed, would align supply and demand on a small number of peak days in the lead-up to Christmas,” the airport said.

“This would encourage demand into less busy periods, protecting the heavier peaks, and avoiding flight cancellations due to resource pressures.”

The airport also aims to build back its ecosystem to meet demand at peak periods.

"To do so, businesses across the airport need to recruit and train up to 25,000 security cleared people ― a huge logistical challenge," it said.