Talks offer late chance to avoid air misery

Bosses at British Airport Authority (BAA) yesterday pledged to sit down with Unite chiefs at conciliation service Acas, saying they hoped they could "quickly conclude an agreement".

However, Unite is insisting that BAA must come up with a better offer than its current 1.5 per cent deal for 2010, which they describe as an effective pay cut, given the rate of inflation.

Scotland faces being effectively cut off from UK and international airports if the strike goes ahead. While no dates have yet been scheduled, there are fears the union could hit the August holiday weekend to cause maximum impact.

BAA would have no choice but to close all six of its airports if staff walked out. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Heathrow, Stansted and Southampton airports would all close as a result.

Airlines yesterday reported that flight bookings remained as normal despite the uncertainty over flight scheduling. Only flights before 23 August are guaranteed of being unaffected as unions have to give a week's notice ahead of any action.

A meeting with shop stewards at which strike action will be organised is also planned for Monday if negotiations between the two sides fails to make progress.

A spokesman for BAA confirmed yesterday said: "We look forward to meeting the trade unions at Acas on Monday and are ready to meet over the weekend or any time that the unions are available. We hope that we can quickly conclude an agreement, in the interests of the travelling public, our airlines and our staff, the majority of whom did not vote for a strike."

BAA has questioned the legitimacy of the strike which was voted on by fewer than half of Unite's 6,000 BAA workers. Of those who did vote, workers in favour of a strike outnumbered those against by three to one.