Will strikes mean my Calgary Christmas is a bridge too far?

Q Please can you advise if we are expecting outbound flights from Heathrow to be cancelled due to the Border Force strikes or if these would predominantly affect inbound flights to the UK? I am booked to fly to Calgary on 23 December.

Melissa C-M

A Your question is well-timed. Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has warned passengers to expect “severe disruption” as a result of the strike. Staff will walk out at Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff between 23-26 and 28-31 December inclusive as part of a dispute about pay, pensions and job security.

To replace the staff who normally check the passports of arriving passengers, military personnel and civil servant volunteers are being trained, though they will not be able to provide the same level of service.

Yet the boss of Britain’s busiest airport, Heathrow, said on Monday he intends to run every flight scheduled during the impending strike by members of the PCS union who work for UK Border Force. John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of the airport, said: “Departing journeys and the vast majority of arriving journeys should be unaffected.”

You will be travelling on the busiest day for arrivals at Heathrow over the Christmas season, with up to 125,000 passengers coming in on 23 December. I checked how many intercontinental flights are due to arrive at Heathrow before 7am: more than 50, representing around 12,000 passengers. A good way to ease potential pressure will be to delay some of the arrivals – probably those from North America – which could be re-timed to touch down in mid-morning instead. Potentially, that will delay some westbound departures too.

Happily for you, the flights from Heathrow to Calgary are operated by Canadian carriers. The incoming aircraft are Air Canada touching down at 10.10am and WestJet at 12.15am. Whichever airline you are booked on, you should fly as planned (weather permitting).

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Q My afternoon flight yesterday with British Airways from Lyon to Heathrow was cancelled this afternoon due to “adverse weather conditions” – yet all the other BA flights on the same route went ahead. I believe I can’t claim compensation for cancelled flights if it’s due to adverse weather – but what if that weather doesn’t exist?

Emma K

A I am sorry that you were one of many thousands of passengers flying to and from London Heathrow whose flights were cancelled yesterday – especially since it is clear that many other services were going in and out of the UK’s busiest airport, albeit mainly with delays.

At the root of the problem is that Heathrow airport has very little slack in the system. It is the world’s busiest two-runway hub (Gatwick, around the M25, is the busiest single-runway airport). From early yesterday morning onwards, there was freezing fog at Heathrow. The maximum rate of landings is as many as one per minute; due to the poor visibility and icy conditions, this rate was approximately halved for much of the day.

In such circumstances, Heathrow and its airlines reduce their schedules. British Airways, with more than half the slots, inevitably takes the biggest hit. Aer Lingus and SAS Scandinavian Airlines also made cancellations, and there could be more as the wintry weather continues.

A BA spokesperson told me: “We’re very sorry as a result of adverse winter weather conditions, like other airlines, have had to reduce our schedule at Heathrow today. We’re taking steps to ensure as many customers as possible are able to travel as planned.

“We’ve apologised to our customers and are offering to refund or rebook them onto alternative flights, providing refreshment vouchers and hotel accommodation where needed.” British Airways generally cancels short-haul, high-frequency routes – including Lyon and other cities in France. The airline put on some larger aircraft on flights that went ahead, but inevitably not everyone got where they needed to be.

If BA does not have availability today, then you can ask to be rebooked on a different airline, such as easyJet from Gatwick.

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Q Are there any circumstances where an airline is not obliged to get you to your destination? I understand that if the fault is with the airline then all sorts of rules kick in such as delay compensation. However, if my flight is delayed or cancelled due to industrial action with, for example, UK Border Force delays, is the airline still duty-bound to get you to your destination via other routes?

My example would be on an international inbound flight to Heathrow: if delayed significantly at passport control, what would be the situation if we missed our connecting shuttle flight to Scotland?

Lenny G

A Fortunately, from the traveller’s point of view, European air passengers’ rights rules (which have been copied and pasted into UK law post-Brexit) are on your side. The parts offering cash compensation for delays and cancellations apply only when the airline is at fault. But the duty-of-care rules prevail whatever the cause of the problem. They require the airline you were planning to travel with to find you the fastest possible way to allow you to complete your journey.

This assumes that you have booked (for example) Johannesburg-London Heathrow-Edinburgh as a connecting ticket. The airline is obliged to make arrangements for you to travel on a later flight if you miss a connection through no fault of your own. (If they are separate tickets, you are in trouble if the first flight is seriously late.)

The obligation for providing alternative flights to passengers whose connections go awry is actually long established in aviation. Where Europe’s rules differ from other parts of the world is in terms of accommodation and meals. Outside Europe, generally an airline will pay for room and board only if it is the carrier’s fault. For example, after a technical problem delayed my Avianca flight from the Galapagos, I was given a nice hotel room (the Guayaquil Hilton), dinner and breakfast by the airline.

But when bad weather halts flights in the US, you and your credit card are on your own: at Atlanta airport one day, I was advised when calling around motels to “tell them you’re a distressed passenger”. In contrast, for airlines of the UK and the EU, there is a strict obligation to provide care for you.

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