There will be more havoc for those trying to enter the UK on select dates around the year-end holidays when more than 1,000 Border Force employees will strike for eight days.
The strike will affect Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, London Gatwick, London Heathrow (terminals 2, 3, 4 & 5), and Manchester airports + one seaport.
Remember that there is no immigration check when you exit the UK; the information is cross-checked with the airline’s passport data.
There will likely be significant delays in entering the UK through these ports on strike dates, although the government tries to get civil servants and the army to handle passport scanning and checking passengers.
There could be pressure by the airport operators to ask airlines to stop selling tickets or reduce the number of incoming passengers who enter the UK (read flight cancellations). However, the airlines will likely have waivers to postpone or change your travel dates (nothing has been announced yet).
Conclusion
There could be another Christmas Heathrow meltdown in the making, right, what we need.
I have been in/out of Heathrow several times this year and will enter and exit one more time in the next ten days. My experiences have all been smooth.
Let’s hope that the airport operators, airlines, and the UK government can devise a plan that at least partially mitigates this strike.
