According to an article in the Telegraph, those landing at Heathrow today did not face the horrendous queues and delays predicted before the strikes. In fact, it seems that processing passengers through customs was even quicker than normal!

The airport had drafted in special ‘volunteers’ from other sectors of non-striking civil service that had been trained a month in advance of the strike and were overseen by members of staff not involved in the strike. BAA had brought in piles of water bottles and chocolate bars at immigration boarder control for passengers if the queues went on for too long, but not even a break down of the iris scanners slowed down the pace.

Many felt that they were getting VIP treatment as they were guided around by volunteers in purple ‘help’ sashes and many were even outnumbered by the baggage reclaim staff.

British traveller Victoria Malloy said she had feared the worst as she landed from her flight from New York: “We were told in the plane there would be delays of between eight to 12 hours. But it’s never been so quick. I’ll make sure I travel during a strike next time,” she said.

Some airlines had cancelled flights or flown at half capacity as a preventative measure, which seemed to contribute to today’s smooth running of boarder control.

Expect delays of over 24 hours from tomorrow evening (23rd November) for flights to Portugal as a general strike hits the country.

Airports will be hit by strikes from 21:00hrs on Wednesday until 04:00hrs on Friday. Passengers travelling after 22:00hrs on Wednesday are being advised to contact their airline or travel agent before going to the airport.

Portuguese pilots are also threatening to strike for a total of eight days, from 9th-12th December and 3rd-6th January.

Here’s a round up of this week’s blog posts:

New Manchester to Washington D.C. Route

United Continental Airlines launch route

Dreamliner Hitch

ANA report landing difficulty with new Dreamliner

IAG to buy BMI

BA and Iberia parent carrier reach deal with Lufthansa

Plans for Thames Estuary Airport

Lord Foster reveals his plans

Another Ryanair headline

O’Leary wants to allow passengers to access porn on board

Acas to help with Thomas Cook cabin crew dispute

Unite ask for help

Unite has asked for the dispute between Thomas Cook and its cabin crew to go to Acas (Advisory, conciliation and arbitration service).

Following talks in Manchester, Unite regional officer Mick Whitley said: ”We are waiting to hear from Thomas Cook if it wishes to go down the Acas route, which is allowed for in the agreement Unite has with the company.”

The dispute is over 500 cabin crew who face losing their jobs, Unite has requested a minimum of three weeks per year plus a £5,000 lump sum redundancy payment package, whereas Thomas Cook is only offering two weeks per year pay.

Read more about the dispute on the previous post here.

Over 70,000 people in over 22 nations have been affected by the recent Qantas dispute with unions, which saw all domestic and international aircraft grounded yesterday by order of Qantas management in response to the strikes. However, in an independent tribunal ruling forced by the action, a permanent end to the industrial action was ordered, with flights able to start again as early as tomorrow (Monday).

In August strikes started as a result of Qantas declaration that it is to restructure and outsource some of its work in order to combat the approximate $200m annual losses it has been making internationally. The unions claimed the need for more job security of staff and argued against the proposed job losses. Talks were not leading anywhere, which is why Qantas decided to take such a bold step in grounding all flights, thus costing the economy “tens of millions of dollars every hour” according to the BBC, and forcing the tribunal.

The Fair Work Australia ruling said: “We have decided to terminate protected industrial action in relation to each of the proposed enterprise agreements immediately.”

The decision requires both parties to get back into negotiations and to reach an agreement within 21 days.

Thomas Cook cabin crew have voted in favour of industrial action over 498 redundancies. 475 voted in favour, with 53 against and six spoilt ballot papers.

Currently Thomas Cook is offering two weeks per year redundancy pay, however the union Unite is demanding 3 weeks, plus a lump sum payment of £5,000. The average cabin crew pay is £15,000 a year.

Unite reps at Thomas Cook will meet in Manchester on Wednesday to decide their future strategy, which could include going ahead with a full industrial action ballot for strike action.

Unite regional officer Mick Whitley said: “The overwhelming vote shows our members’ anger and should be a strong wake-up call for the management to return to the negotiating table with a fair offer.

“And until we have had the meeting tomorrow, Unite is not going to speculate about Christmas flights by Thomas Cook. The ball is very much in the management’s court – they need to come up with a realistic offer for those facing redundancy. They are a very profitable firm; the group made £320 million this year and it is paying out a fortune in bonuses and dividends, as well as sponsoring the Olympics.”

A 24 hour general strike in Greece today has forced airlines to cancel flights to and from the country.

British Airways has cancelled seven flights between London Heathrow and Athens. Passengers can either cancel with a full refund or rebook for another time. BA’s London Gatwick and Thessalonika flights will operate but with lengthy delays.

Ryanair has cancelled its flights between Liverpool and Kos but it will offer additional services tomorrow.

EasyJet has also cancelled flights between Gatwick, Manchester and Liverpool to Greece and is offering passengers a choice of a refund or a free transfer to other services. It is warning that flights overnight will be delayed.

British Airways has not had the best time of it over the past two years during its dispute with the Unite union. Its reputation has suffered, so as a result the airline is launching a marketing campaign which it hopes will help to rekindle pride among both its staff and its customers.

The campaign, at a cost of £1.5m, will focus on the airline’s heritage with a 90-second film that addresses five decades of BA and its place in aviation’s history.

According to Marketing Magazine, images of BA staff will feature prominently in the campaign. The campaign follows an internal communications project intended to inspire pride in the brand among the 32,000 staff.

French Eurotunnel employees are threatening to strike this bank holiday weekend. Their unions are demanding an 8% pay rise or will call a stoppage to working.

Eurotunnel is putting emergency plans into place to cope with threatened action; the cross channel rail link has suspended sales of tickets for the bank holiday period, over 25,000 vehicles, carrying around 100,000 people, are expected to use the service over the three days.

Eurotunnel says it hopes to rely on its British drivers to run services as usual, but has suspended extra ticket sales to ease the situation.

For those wanting to avoid the Eurotunnel problems, SeaFrance and DFDS Seaways (formerly Norfolkline) have both issued statements urging people to book with them as early as possible because capacity is already tight. SeaFrance Dover-Calais Ferries will be operating an additional 16 crossings for both car and freight traffic due to a huge surge in demand.

Customers travelling by ferry are advised to use the M2/A2 route to the Port of Dover to avoid potential delays as a result of the Eurotunnel strike.

Prepare for delays when travelling by air, sea and through the channel tunnel from 6pm tonight and throughout tomorrow as the majority of UK Border Agency staff join in on the public sector walk out.

Airlines have received a letter from the Agency advising that their passengers should “travel on an alternative day” to avoid the disruption. 70% of UKBA staff are members of the striking Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), so travel will also be disrupted through UK sea ports and the channel tunnel.

There are some questions over the country’s security during the walk out as some have suggested that back office staff and managers will struggle during the strike.

The strike starts this evening and continues until midnight on Thursday. It has been organised by four unions protesting about public sector pension reform. Teachers will also strike which will mean childcare issues for millions of working parents tomorrow.

The UK is not the only place struggling to deal with strikes, Greek air traffic controllers are currently on a 48-hour strike, and Parisian taxi drivers are also on strike which will affect transfer times for passengers arriving in the city.

Easyjet has advised passengers of disruption to flights in and out of Greece, Ryanair has already cancelled a flight to the country today, and British Airways has re-scheduled two flights to Athens from London today.