Those due to jet off from Carlow and Kilkenny could face disruption as workers at Heathrow airport take strike action.
1,400 staff at the London facility are walking off the job for 10 days in a row over pay.
It coincides with the busy Easter holiday period when many families are travelling.
Tom Britton of Marble City Travel on KCLR Breakfast earlier said the effects have already been felt locally; “We’d a number of flights cancelled during the week for one reason or another into Terminal 5 Heathrow and Terminal 5 is British Airway’s hub so it’s one thing having your flight to London cancelled and having to go an hour later or a couple of hours later having to go but if you’re connecting onwards through Heathrow at the minute you need to be very, very careful”.
He adds “Effectively this will slow down your transit through Heathrow and then it’s also causing the airlines to cancel a number of flights, British Airways have cancelled up to 300 in total so keep an eye if you’re due to travel through Heathrow over the next ten days”.
Mr Britton outlines how it could impact on your holiday as a whole, noting; “So if you’ve a flight we’ll say cancelled today to Heathrow and you’re repositioned for tomorrow to go on a particular flight, that’s fine you take that and away you go, but as these roll they become more cumulative and they become a bigger problem so by the end of the tenth day you could be discommoded or your holiday could be completely banjaxed”.
And there’s a concern that the action could spark similar across the sector; “The strike in the UK is over money, they were offered a 10% pay rise, that’s been turned down, but I’m seeing it in other areas the airlines in the US are the same way, they’re announcing huge pay increases for pilots and cabin crew and all the rest of it so it’s out there it’s the time of year when air traffic controllers or anybody involved in the travel industry can cause havoc and seeing this roll on is a bit scary”.
