By Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com writer
LONDON: Air travelers heading to London on Wednesday Nov. 30?should change their plans or prepare for long delays because of a strike by immigration officials, airports and airlines warned on Friday.
The planned action, part of a nationwide protest by government workers about proposed changes to pensions, could lead to "very long delays of up to 12 hours" for international passengers arriving at Heathrow and "mass cancellations of departing aircraft", airlines were told by the airport operator.
Delays to passport checks are likely to be so long that passengers may have to be held on arriving aircraft, BAA?PLC?told airlines in a letter made public in a PDF file on its website.
"This in turn would quickly create gridlock at the airport with no available aircraft parking stands, mass cancellations of departing aircraft and diversions outside the UK for arriving aircraft," BAA added.
The warning came in a letter to all airlines which fly into Heathrow from BAA's Heathrow chief operating officer Normand Boivin.
Boivin said BAA had "reluctantly concluded" that the UK Border Agency would be unable to provide a contingency plan to support normal operations.
The strike will affect passengers arriving on international flights at all UK airports but disruption at Heathrow - the world's busiest in terms of international passenger numbers - is expected to be particularly severe because nearly 100 long-haul services are due to arrive before 9 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) on the day of the strike.
British Airways on Friday warned the action "may create long delays at passport control" and said customers could change their flight to select alternative dates free of charge if they wished to be certain of avoiding disruption.
The airline said: "If you are due to arrive on an international flight into Heathrow, Gatwick or London City airports on Wednesday 30 November, you have the option to change your booking if seats are available on 27, 28 or 29 November or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 December."
Virgin Atlantic was "very concerned" about the effect of the strike on flights from the United States and said it would allow passengers booked on inbound flights on Wednesday to rebook for travel up to four days earlier or later, the BBC reported.
Boivin said Heathrow had agreed "a voluntary protocol" for all airlines to reduce the number of passengers arriving on Wednesday.
He went on: "We will plan for a normal flight schedule, but we are requesting all carriers to reduce load factors on each international flight arriving into Heathrow on November 30 to 50% of normal levels.
"By following this protocol, airlines will reduce the risk of being diverted to an airport outside the UK and reduce the risk of having an outbound flight cancelled."
Mr Boivin told the airlines that Heathrow would do all it could and "may also be obliged to advise arriving passengers ... that they should avoid arriving into the UK on November 30 unless absolutely necessary."
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