Travel insurance could ease the pain of Bank Holiday chaos

As a strike by staff at Manchester Airport looms, holidaymakers with travel insurance can at least take comfort from the fact that they should be compensated for long delays.

Hundreds of baggage handlers, cleaners and other ancillary workers voted in favour of industrial action this coming weekend in a dispute over pay.

While their union Unite is seeking urgent talks with bosses to avoid walk-outs over the Bank Holiday there is a very real possibility that services at Manchester Airport will be severely disrupted during one of the busiest weekends of the year.

Regional officer Lawrence Chapple-Gill said: Our members have demonstrated they are prepared to take industrial action and are willing to fight for fair pay.""

Manchester Airport claimed on its website last weekend that the strike had been cancelled but there has been no official confirmation of this from the union and the airport has since removed the statement from the website.

Instead it says: We'd like to reassure passengers travelling over the bank holiday weekend that because the potential strike action only affects 300 staff out of a workforce of 20,000 at the airport, major disruption is highly unlikely.

""We continue to advise people to come to the airport as normal.""

Unite and the GMB members at Gatwick and Stansted have also voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay, though no dates have been set for any strikes.

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