Security guard staff at London's Heathrow Airport have gone on strike for 10 days after talks on a pay settlement failed.
Unite (Britain's second-largest trade union) said the strike involved about 1400,<> employees, most of whom worked on the fifth runway of the airport, which is exclusively reserved for British Airways, and also involved staff checking cargo arriving at the airport.
British Airways announced the cancellation of 5% of its flights and the non-sale of new tickets throughout the strike days.
Heathrow officials said it was operating as usual on Friday, despite a strike by security guards as part of a wage dispute.
Security guard employees demand a raise in their low wages (European)
The airport's chief executive said contingency plans were working well, although some British Airways flights were expected to be cancelled.
The Uniate general secretary said: "Heathrow can afford to pay a satisfactory pay increase to its clients. It is a wealthy company and it is about to return to make big profits. "Recent years have agreed to a massive increase in its CEO's pay and distributed billions in dividends to shareholders."
Spring last year and then during the summer holidays, the airport suffered strikes and staff shortages, leading to long queues, flight delays, baggage problems and flight cancellations.
As the sector struggled to absorb the recovery in demand, Heathrow also had to limit the number of passengers passing through its facilities per day.
Britain has seen repeated strikes in many sectors for months to demand better salaries in the face of price hikes of more than 10%. Inflation rose again in February to 10.4%.