Heathrow Airport saw its busiest start to the year since the pandemic, with 5.4 million passengers in January.
The latest figures are still below the six million people who flew through in January 2020, but Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye said it showed the airport was “back at its best”.
But it comes to the point that more than 3,000 workers are expected to vote on strike action.
The Unite union has warned that Easter strikes would cause disruption.
The union said security guards, engineers and firefighters would begin voting on Friday on whether to strike over pay after their members rejected a 10 percent wage increase.
About 17,458 flights are expected to depart from UK airports at the halfway point, according to data firm Cirium, which handles flights, but overall departures are down 19% compared to the same period in 2019.
Cirium said exits were up 43% from the February hiatus last year. This shows the “ongoing recovery” of the air travel industry, which was rock bottom at the height of the pandemic.
The Association of British Travel Agents said many tour operators are “anticipating a busy half term as demand for travel continues to return to pre-pandemic levels”.
Mr Holland-Kaye added that Heathrow’s mid-school break services “have been going very well”.
Heathrow said its overall passenger satisfaction is now “at or above pre-pandemic levels”, with 98% of passengers waiting less than 10 minutes for security in the past month, which is typically a quieter time of year for UK passengers.
The airport said Border Force was testing the use of e-gates for children aged 10 and 11 in Terminal 5 during the half-term holiday, as it did in Gatwick and Stansted.
Currently, travelers aged 12 and over with biometric passports can use e-gates to bypass manual checks when passing through border control.
Unite said if workers went on strike it would “inevitably lead to serious disruption” by Easter.
Thousands of workers across multiple industries have been demanding wage increases in recent months to keep up with the rising cost of living. Inflation in the UK, the rate at which prices are rising, is currently at 10.5%.
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A Heathrow spokesman said the airport was “extremely disappointed” by Unite’s move and warned that the “offer of payment will be withdrawn when strike action begins”. The offer of a 10% pay rise came at a time when the company was making losses.
In December, Border Force staff went on strike for several days, despite Heathrow saying the disruption had been “managed successfully”. The Border Force has drafted in about 1,000 collaborators from military personnel and officials, many of whom are responsible for checking passports, and delays to trips were reported to have been minimal.
Thousands of passengers faced delays and flight cancellations across the UK last year, with airports and airlines struggling to hire enough staff to cope with the surge in demand for international travel following the lifting of Covid restrictions.
Airports and airlines cut thousands of jobs at the height of the pandemic, and many workers did not return to the industry because they found other jobs.
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