Delays are expected across the majority of UK airports today in what is set to be the biggest walk out in more than 30 years.
Up to two million public sector workers are staging a strike, with more than 1,000 demonstrations expected to take place around the country.
Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, could see delays of up to 12 hours as immigration officials take part in the industrial action.
Up to 18,000 immigration officials are due to walk out over a dispute in changes to the public sector pension plan.
Heathrow Airport has introduced several measures to try and ease passenger congestion. These include drafting in Whitehall civil servants and non-union staff members to conduct passport checks.
Some police officers have also been employed at UK borders to further help with the backlog.
As well as this, Heathrow has announced that 400 of its office-based staff have received customer-service training and will be deployed throughout the airport to provide information and support to passengers.
In a statement released this morning, Heathrow said that there have been no delays at the airport so far.
The airport said: “Due to the effective contingency plans we have put in place with the airlines and the UK Border Agency over recent days, immigration queues are currently at normal levels. However there still remains a possibility of delays for arriving passengers later in the day.”
Gatwick Airport has so far not experienced any delays either. Scott Stanley, Gatwick Airport Chief Operating Officer said: “While passengers have so far not experienced delays at the border zones we do expect delays to occur at some point today as the rate of arriving flights increases.”
On the advice of UK airport authorities, Etihad Airways has cancelled three of its inbound flights to London, and has reduced capacity on others.
Many airlines have offered passengers due to fly today the chance to change their flights, at no extra cost.
These include Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, and United Continental.
