OPERATIONS at Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) airfields are being grounded this week as check-in, security, baggage handling, and ground crew workers take strike action.

A series of 24-hour strikes are now well underway across 11 HIAL airports after a ballot in December saw Unite members vote  73.5 per cent in favour of a strike, and 92.8 per cent in favour of action short of a strike.

Unite industrial officer Shauna Wright said: “Unite believes our hard working members who keep airports operating in isolated and rural communities across Scotland deserve far more than what is currently on the table.”

HIAL is a private company wholly owned by the Scottish government that provides lifeline air services to some of the most remote parts of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

The firm’s offer of a 5 per cent wage increase — a real-terms cut as inflation has soared to more than double that rate in recent months — led Unite to call on the company’s owner to intervene.

Ms Wright said: “Unite is once again calling on the Scottish government to meet with us, the workers and HIAL management to fund an improved pay offer, and to deliver more investment in these communities.

“If they do not, then Unite’s strike action will be down to their inflexibility.”

The strike action this week will affect Barra, Benbecula, Campeltown, Inverness, Islay, Kirkwall, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Tiree, and Wick airports, to be followed by a discontinuous overtime ban from February 24 to March 2.