With the Manchester Airport planning to join the proposed industry action next week, those Britons heading on with their late summer holidays might face misery during this period. Following the voting by the baggage handlers and check-in staff for action, two 24-hour strikes have been called at the airport scheduled on Wednesday, the 27th of August and Monday, the 1st of September.

At the outset, the staff under these two segments has been appointed by ground services company Swissport. The stoppage announcement at the Manchester Airport follows the two 24-hour strikes that have been already called by Unite at Gatwick and Stansted. Most notably, those strikes have been scheduled to take place on Monday, the 25th of August and Friday, the 29th of August.

The principal reason behind these demonstrations is that Unite is totally unhappy with the 'paltry' pay offer of Swissport and is not ready to accept the new arrangements pertaining to sick-pay. Things are highly probable that action could eventually and rapidly escalate across the nation, with the members of the Unite at Swissport also to be balloted at Birmingham and Newcastle airports very shortly.

Not less than 97% of Unite members at Manchester voted in favour of strike action. If the strike comes forth, it could seriously hit the services operated by airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, KLM, Air France and Monarch. Over and above, the airlines that are most likely to be affected by the Gatwick stoppage include Virgin, Monarch, First Choice and Thomsonfly. On the other hand, a strike at Stansted will hit easyJet, Ryanair and First Choice.