UK airports 'near normal' amid strike

Plane arrivals and take-offs at Britain's two biggest airports were largely unaffected by today's strike.

But the RMT transport union reported "rock-solid strike action" that had led to "a total shutdown of key transport services in north east England".

There were just a few cancellations of inbound transatlantic flights to Heathrow Airport this morning.

But Heathrow operator BAA, and its busiest carrier, British Airways, both reported near-normal services, with queues at immigration no longer than usual.

And at the second-busiest UK airport - Gatwick in West Sussex - the first 22 inbound flights arrived as normal, with departures also running smoothly.

There has been fears that strike action by UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff would lead to chaos at Heathrow, where BAA had asked airlines to fly planes half-full today.

A British Airways spokesman said: "We've had a positive start to the day and queues are pretty much as normal."

It was thought that around two-thirds of UKBA staff were working normally at Heathrow.

A BAA spokesman said: "Due to the effective contingency plans we have put in place with the airlines and the UKBA over recent days, immigration queues are currently at normal levels. However, there still remains a possibility of delays for arriving passengers later in the day.

"As a result of the whole airport community working together over the past few days, we have more immigration officers on duty and fewer passengers arriving than would otherwise be the case. That puts us in a better place to avoid the serious delays and widespread disruption at Heathrow that were projected last week.

"We have deployed hundreds of additional customer services staff within our terminals. They are giving 24-hour support to passengers, providing information, food, drink and children's activity packs. They are equipped with iPads and BlackBerrys to keep passengers up to date."

Gatwick's chief operating officer, Scott Stanley, said: "While passengers have so far not experienced delays at the border zones, we do expect delays to occur at some point today as the rate of arriving flights increases.

Passengers arriving at Gatwick's south terminal said they had not experienced any delays, with some describing the process as "quicker than normal".

"That said, we do have robust plans in place to help keep those delays at the border zones to a minimum. To help avoid overcrowding, we have reconfigured both our airside terminals to provide significantly more space and seating for arriving passengers."

Passengers coming through Heathrow airport said border controls were "better than usual".

Airport services in southern England seemed to be unaffected, with flights at Luton airport in Bedfordshire and Stansted airport in Essex operating normally. There were also no delays at Manchester airport.