Number of passengers using BAA airports every year: 148,595,977
Therefore:
Average number of passengers using BAA airports every day: 407,112
So, in two 24 hour stoppages and one 48 hour stoppage, 1,628,449 people would have their travel plans nixed. All flights from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Prestwick, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen would be cancelled, and there is nowhere in the UK that they could be redirected to. On top of that, obscene numbers of planes would be out of position for travel on the following days, resulting in misery for hundreds of thousands more people.
One more number for you: 1,946 who voted for said strike.
Those numbers are the very reason why I’m often iffy about trade unions. Two thousand folk decide for themselves that their issue should take precedence over the actions of a million and a half others. Doesn’t seem particularly nice, does it?
Nice? I suppose that the actions of the few over the desire or will of the many isn’t.
It’s the prevaiing situation though.
In the case of govt, I didn’t vote the buggers in yet they still make decisions that affect me in adverse ways. The few in power making decisions that affect the many.