UK airport strikes avoided

TALKS have narrowly avoided strikes that were expected to close the UK’s major airports over the busiest weekend of August.

Intense closed negotiations between airport owner BAA, the unions Unite, Prospect and the Public and Commercial Services union, as well as the negotiating service Acas, resulted in a pay offer twice that already offered. The previous one per cent rise was branded “measly”.

Unite’s national officer, Brian Boyd, said the talks had been “tough” but that the new offer would be recommended for approval to the union members.

BAA’s technical standards and assurance director, Terry Morgan, said: “We are very, very confident that any disruption to our airport operations has now been avoided, which is very important to us, to make sure that people travelling on holiday and business over the next few weeks can do so with a high degree of confidence that their journeys are not going to be disrupted.”