UK airport strikes in January

Does anybody have a view on whether the planned BAA strikes for
7/Jan (24hrs), 14/Jan (24hrs) and 17/Jan (48hrs) will spill over
to the days before or after these days?

I'm due to fly out of LHR on 23/January to get some sun...

"z0ned0ut" wrote in message
...

Does anybody have a view on whether the planned BAA strikes for
7/Jan (24hrs), 14/Jan (24hrs) and 17/Jan (48hrs) will spill over
to the days before or after these days?

As It's unclear what will actually happen on the day, I doubt it will be
possible to predict what will happen on the days after. Though I doubt
anything will happen on the day before.

It would be nice to see an official announcement as to what is expected, but
I haven't so far.

I'm booked to fly on the 7th and no-one has contacted me to tell me to do
anything different to normal.

I'm due to fly out of LHR on 23/January to get some sun...

I doubt that you will be affected by a strike on the 17th

tim

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 01:11:35 +0000, z0ned0ut
wrote:


Does anybody have a view on whether the planned BAA strikes for
7/Jan (24hrs), 14/Jan (24hrs) and 17/Jan (48hrs) will spill over
to the days before or after these days?

I'm due to fly out of LHR on 23/January to get some sun...

Hi (from the UK)

I am due to fly out of Heathrow on 9th Jan (2 days after the 7th Jan
strike) and the answer from my Travel Agent when I asked that question
a couple of days ago was probably yes. They told me that people
flying out on the 8th were definitely affected and had already had
their flights changed - in my case, 48 hours may be enough time for my
flight to be as scheduled.

In my particular case, the agents say they are working with the
airline and if I do NOT hear from either them or the airline then turn
up at the airport as per the ticket; but there is a chance they may
contact me beforehand with alternative instructions.

My advice would be to contact either your travel agent or the airline
- possibly both - and ask them. Certainly in my case, if I do NOT
hear anything by the day before my flight, I will phone the airline
and double check.

Regards

KGB

"KGB (KGB)" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 01:11:35 +0000, z0ned0ut
wrote:


Does anybody have a view on whether the planned BAA strikes for
7/Jan (24hrs), 14/Jan (24hrs) and 17/Jan (48hrs) will spill over
to the days before or after these days?

I'm due to fly out of LHR on 23/January to get some sun...

Hi (from the UK)

I am due to fly out of Heathrow on 9th Jan (2 days after the 7th Jan
strike) and the answer from my Travel Agent when I asked that question
a couple of days ago was probably yes. They told me that people
flying out on the 8th were definitely affected and had already had
their flights changed - in my case, 48 hours may be enough time for my
flight to be as scheduled.

I think that you've been lucky if you've had this response.

As I said, I have received no information and there's nothing on the
airline's web site to indicate that they might do anything unusual on these
dates.

I tried BA and they have no news and they (still) seem quite happy for me to
make a booking for the 7th (not that I want to). As did the carrier I am
travelling with (still priced at 29.99).

and Ryanair (the only one that I could find with any statement at all) says:
"We have been advised of possible strike action which may result in the
closure of the BAA airports on the 7th Jan 2008. Ryanair flights to / from
the following airports may be affected if these strikes go ahead:....."

snip list

followed by some normal Ryanair politicing:

"Ryanair is calling on the BAA monopoly and the UK Government to ensure
adequate contingency plans are in place to minimise passenger disruption.
There are unlikely to be any further developments over the Christmas
holidays but we will update passengers on this web page on / before the 2nd
January."

Which suggest to me that they hope to be able to fly and will expect people
to actually turn up at the aiprort and wait until their flight is cancelled,
on the day, if they want a FOC flight change (which is a typical FR policy).

But apart from this, I can't see that the strike will knock much onto the
following day for the UK airlines. People who can't fly on the 7th will be
rebooked onto later flights and be expected to turn up as normal on that
date (Jan, after the New Year rush is not a busy month so there should be
plenty of spare capacity on avaliable flights). If flights are cancelled
then the return leg will be as well, so aircraft will still be in the
correct place for 'tomorrows' flights.

I can see that a foreign airline with a very few flights, that decided to
land at an alternative airport will end up with planes in the wrong place,
but I can't see any of the UK carriers doing this, there just isn't enough
capacity at the non BAA airports (and for London flights, none of the
alternatives except Luton makes any sense for bussing pax to/from whilst
operating an intensive service).

tim

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:32:17 -0000 'tim.....'
wrote this on rec.travel.air:

"z0ned0ut" wrote in message
...

Does anybody have a view on whether the planned BAA strikes for
7/Jan (24hrs), 14/Jan (24hrs) and 17/Jan (48hrs) will spill over
to the days before or after these days?

As It's unclear what will actually happen on the day, I doubt it will be
possible to predict what will happen on the days after. Though I doubt
anything will happen on the day before.

It would be nice to see an official announcement as to what is expected, but
I haven't so far.

I'm booked to fly on the 7th and no-one has contacted me to tell me to do
anything different to normal.

Ooh er! The 7th. I have to assume you will be affected.
Last I heard is that on the strike days, BAA might shut the airports
due to having no security staff on duty.

I'm due to fly out of LHR on 23/January to get some sun...

I doubt that you will be affected by a strike on the 17th

I hope.....

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 09:27:52 GMT 'KGB'
wrote this on rec.travel.air:

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 01:11:35 +0000, z0ned0ut
wrote:


Does anybody have a view on whether the planned BAA strikes for
7/Jan (24hrs), 14/Jan (24hrs) and 17/Jan (48hrs) will spill over
to the days before or after these days?

I'm due to fly out of LHR on 23/January to get some sun...

Hi (from the UK)

I am due to fly out of Heathrow on 9th Jan (2 days after the 7th Jan
strike) and the answer from my Travel Agent when I asked that question
a couple of days ago was probably yes. They told me that people
flying out on the 8th were definitely affected and had already had
their flights changed - in my case, 48 hours may be enough time for my
flight to be as scheduled.

In my particular case, the agents say they are working with the
airline and if I do NOT hear from either them or the airline then turn
up at the airport as per the ticket; but there is a chance they may
contact me beforehand with alternative instructions.

My advice would be to contact either your travel agent or the airline
- possibly both - and ask them. Certainly in my case, if I do NOT
hear anything by the day before my flight, I will phone the airline
and double check.

Regards

KGB

Thanks, that sounds like a good plan...
I'm due to fly with Thai Airways (booked through eBookers.com),
so I guess I'll have to call Thai early-mid January to monitor
the situation.

"z0ned0ut" wrote in message
...

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:32:17 -0000 'tim.....'
wrote this on rec.travel.air:

"z0ned0ut" wrote in message
...

Does anybody have a view on whether the planned BAA strikes for
7/Jan (24hrs), 14/Jan (24hrs) and 17/Jan (48hrs) will spill over
to the days before or after these days?

As It's unclear what will actually happen on the day, I doubt it will be
possible to predict what will happen on the days after. Though I doubt
anything will happen on the day before.

It would be nice to see an official announcement as to what is expected,
but
I haven't so far.

I'm booked to fly on the 7th and no-one has contacted me to tell me to do
anything different to normal.

Ooh er! The 7th. I have to assume you will be affected.

Correct, but how?.

Last I heard is that on the strike days, BAA might shut the airports
due to having no security staff on duty.

Then you have heard something that the airlines haven't heard. I think that
is unlikely.

I feel sure that if BAA were expecting that they would have to shut the
airports they would be saying so and airlines would be making contingencies
(at the very least they would stop taking bookings for the days in question,
which demonstrably, they are still doing).

tim

Expect disruptions to last a couple of days after the strike.

Airline may not have crews and aircraft positioned in the right city on
the day following the strike and this may cause some cancellations,
especially in the morning.

Also, remember that the thousands of passengers who were not able to
travel on the 7th (and those on the cancelled flights on the 8th) will
be on stand-by for any seat on the following days, so you can expect
increased crowds at airports.

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:43:07 -0000 'tim.....'
wrote this on rec.travel.air:

"z0ned0ut" wrote in message
...

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:32:17 -0000 'tim.....'
wrote this on rec.travel.air:

"z0ned0ut" wrote in message
...

Does anybody have a view on whether the planned BAA strikes for
7/Jan (24hrs), 14/Jan (24hrs) and 17/Jan (48hrs) will spill over
to the days before or after these days?

As It's unclear what will actually happen on the day, I doubt it will be
possible to predict what will happen on the days after. Though I doubt
anything will happen on the day before.

It would be nice to see an official announcement as to what is expected,
but
I haven't so far.


I'm booked to fly on the 7th and no-one has contacted me to tell me to do
anything different to normal.

Ooh er! The 7th. I have to assume you will be affected.

Correct, but how?.

Dunno. Cancelled flight? Delayed flight?

Last I heard is that on the strike days, BAA might shut the airports
due to having no security staff on duty.

Then you have heard something that the airlines haven't heard. I think that
is unlikely.

I feel sure that if BAA were expecting that they would have to shut the
airports they would be saying so and airlines would be making contingencies
(at the very least they would stop taking bookings for the days in question,
which demonstrably, they are still doing).

That's odd. IIRC it was a BAA spokesman on BBC TV who explained
that all the security staff and other workers who keep the terminals
running would be on strike on those days. Thus, he explained they
might have to shut the terminals and divert inbound/outbound flights
for security reasons. Can you imagine a terminal building being left
open with flights arriving/departing without security staff and
other workers to control the flow of people? I can't.

I think we might get into a situation where public advice to
travelers is poor and erratic and they just say "turn up as usual".

SNIP
I feel sure that if BAA were expecting that they would have to shut the
airports they would be saying so and airlines would be making contingencies
(at the very least they would stop taking bookings for the days in question,
which demonstrably, they are still doing).

That's odd. IIRC it was a BAA spokesman on BBC TV who explained
that all the security staff and other workers who keep the terminals
running would be on strike on those days. Thus, he explained they
might have to shut the terminals and divert inbound/outbound flights
for security reasons. Can you imagine a terminal building being left
open with flights arriving/departing without security staff and
other workers to control the flow of people? I can't.

I think we might get into a situation where public advice to
travelers is poor and erratic and they just say "turn up as usual".

Hi

I feel sure that the airlines are working on the assumption that the
strike may be called off at the last minute.

From their point of view, if they stopped taking bookings for the
strike days and the strike WAS cancelled at the eleventh hour then
potentially they could theoretically be left with an open airport and
no passengers which would probably cost them more money than if the
strike went ahead.

Regards

KGB