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Strike action always comes at the wrong place and the wrong time but then that’s half the point. Last month the aviation industry here in the UK was saved from what could have been another total disaster, one they could have certainly done without, given their current rocky period.

Back at the beginning of August, baggage handlers and check-in staff at Gatwick and Stansted threatened to go on strike over the August bank holiday, which would potentially have caused major disruption for over 400,000 passengers. The staff of Swiss based firm Swissport were in dispute over pay and rejected a 3% pay rise. Although the airlines claimed they would have an adequate contingency plan in place to cope with the loss, nothing would be quite sufficient and, after the debacle at Heathrow this year things might have gone from bad to worse.

But talks were held and finally deals were done and the staff, who would have affected flights on some of the busiest airlines such as Ryanair, Virgin and easyjet, finally accepted a 4% offer that would be back-dated to April 1st. Unite, the union representing the workers, has announced that workers of Swissport will be pleased that this has been resolved with their demands being heard without the need for major hold-ups. There were fears that the strike would seep into Manchester and Glasgow too, but this too was fortunately avoided.