Hundreds of military personnel ready to cover for striking UK Border Force staff
Hundreds of Armed Forces personnel will be made available to provide support at airports in England and Scotland as Border Force staff take strike action.
About 625 military personnel will be on hand, with a significant number of those deployed to the UK's busiest airport at Heathrow, as around a quarter of a million passengers are expected to arrive at UK airports on Friday amid warnings that they should expect delays.
The members of the Armed Forces stepping in to cover have been trained and will work alongside volunteers from the Civil Service to provide cover as about a thousand members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union employed by the Home Office to operate passport booths stage a walkout at Heathrow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester airports, and the port of Newhaven in East Sussex.
A request for Military Aid to Civil Authorities (Maca) was approved earlier this month, paving the way for military personnel to be drafted in to provide cover during the Border Force strikes, which are set take place every day from Friday to the end of the year, except for December 27.
The Border Force strikes are part of a rolling programme of industrial action by members of the PCS union in a long running dispute over pay, jobs, pensions and conditions.
Airline bosses are predicting this will be the busiest Christmas for airports since 2019, as it is the first festive period without coronavirus travel restrictions since the start of the pandemic.
Border Force head of operations Steve Dann said on Wednesday there were "robust plans in place" to limit the impact of the strikes, but the "contingency workforce will not be able to operate with the same efficiency as our permanent workforce".
He added the organisation could not predict the extent of any delays to passengers, but "people should be prepared for disruption".
An estimated 10,000 passengers will be on flights touching down at west London's Heathrow airport before 7am alone.
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