Scheduled flights at nine airports in the north and west of Scotland are suspended today (Monday 23rd June) due to strike action over pay by trade union Unite.
Around 2,000 passengers have had their travel plans disrupted by the industrial action at Highlands and Islands Airports Limited. The action has led to the closure of the airports at Barra, Benbecula, Campbeltown, Islay, Kirkwall, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Tiree and Wick.
Unite represents fire fighters, leading fire fighters and engineers at the company and is staging a second 24 hours of industrial action on 4th July.
After bids by HIAL to get further talks with the union failed last week it had to notify airlines that nine of its airports would be closed to scheduled traffic on 23rd June due to the unavailability of rescue and fire fighting staff.
HIAL said that the strike action was unavoidable because the trade union could not agree to work with it on efforts to enhance pay settlements at this time.
Fire service staff at Inverness are not taking the action and the airport is operating as normal although flights to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles from Inverness will be affected. Dundee Airport, also operated by HIAL via a subsidiary company, is not affected by the strikes.
An HIAL spokesman said: “It is very disappointing that today’s action is going ahead. We have continued to offer further talks on the opportunity to work together to improve future pay awards. These offers have not been taken up by the union. We will continue to try and get talks restarted before the second day of action planned for 4th July.
“We deeply regret the impact of the action on both the travelling public and the airlines and have made every effort to avoid this situation.”
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