Summer travel chaos at Glasgow Airport has been avoided after nearly 400 workers accepted new pay deals, calling off planned strike action during one of the busiest periods of the year. The agreement removes the threat of walkouts timed to coincide with the World Cup, the Commonwealth Games and the peak school holiday season.
The deal covers around 230 ICTS central search staff, who work in security search areas and process passengers for flights, and about 160 ground crew employed by Menzies Aviation. Both groups are represented by the Unite trade union and had previously been balloted for industrial action in a dispute over pay and conditions.
ICTS staff have secured a two-year package which includes a 5% increase to basic pay and shift allowances, backdated to 1 January, alongside an additional bank holiday. From 1 January 2027, workers will receive a rise set at the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation plus 1%, applied to both basic and shift pay, as well as further improvements to terms and conditions.
Menzies Aviation’s ground services workers – including dispatchers, allocators, airside agents and controllers – have accepted a one-year deal which delivers a 4.4% increase backdated to January. From 1 July, their pay will rise by a minimum of 5%, with some workers seeing uplifts of up to 11.1% depending on role and grading.
Unite described the outcome as a “significant victory” for airport staff who had argued that previous offers failed to keep pace with the cost of living and did not reflect the pressures of working through a period of sustained passenger growth. The union had repeatedly warned that a wave of coordinated strikes across Scotland’s major airports was possible if employers did not improve their offers.
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The resolution at Glasgow comes after weeks of tension, with unions highlighting the potential for widespread disruption to holidaymakers and fans travelling to major sporting events. Hundreds of workers at both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports had previously backed strike action in ballots over pay, raising the prospect of long queues, delays and cancellations at peak times.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Hundreds of frontline workers at Glasgow airport have secured vastly improved pay deals. This is a direct result of the workers refusing to accept their employers’ pitiful pay offers and to fight for better pay, which they successfully secured after the threat of strike action.”
With the latest agreements now in place for ICTS and Menzies staff at Glasgow, the immediate risk of summer shutdowns at the airport has eased, although negotiations continue in other parts of Scotland’s aviation sector. Travel and business groups are expected to welcome the deal, which provides certainty for airlines, tour operators and passengers ahead of the school holidays and a packed calendar of international events.
