Woeful Wednesday at UK airports

If you're heading for the UK Wednesday and flying into the major airports anytime after midnight on Tuesday, expect long delays due to industrial action being taken by immigration staff.

Heathrow, where immigration queues for international arrivals are bad at the best of times, is warning of waits of up to 12 hours for processing.

Worse still, delays at immigration are likely to be so long that passengers will not be safely accommodated within the terminals and would need to be held on arriving aircraft.

"This in turn would quickly create gridlock at the airport with no available aircraft parking stands, mass cancellations or departing aircraft and diversions outside the UK for arriving aircraft," Heathrow advises.

The latest online news from the UK Border agency says it is taking "robust" action to minimise disruption for passengers by using managers, overseas staff and contractors to process passengers.

Among airlines operating out of the Asia-Pacific region, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are all offering free schedule changes to avoid travel on November 30.

Cathay Pacific is among those discouraging flying entirely. "In order to avoid disruption and inconvenience," it said on its website, "we recommend that customers avoid travel on the day unless absolutely necessary."

For travelers with no option but to fly to Britain on Wednesday, the situation looks grim.

The planned walkout is part of industrial action by unions representing border staff and civil servants angry at government plans to increase their retirement age and pension contributions.