Air traffic controllers to vote on strike over centralisation plans

A busy Sumburgh Airport on Monday. Photo: Ronnie Robertson

Highlands and Islands Airport Limited (Hial) air traffic controllers will vote on whether to strike on centralisation plans.

If members of the Prospect union agree to the strike, it would take place in Hial airports such as Sumburgh starting from Monday 4th January 2021.

Individual one-day strikes would take place after that date, Prospect says.

Air traffic controllers are voting on the action because of concerns about the air traffic functions being centralised to Inverness.

Prospect says the move will result in “compulsory redundancies” with many staff “understandably reluctant to be uprooted from the communities they serve”.

Negotiator David Avery said staff did not want to take this action, but Hial’s refusal to discuss the move had left them with “no option but to ballot”.