Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Corder. It's Thursday the 27th of July and I have not one but two pieces of good news to bring airline travelers which I think is a record. I think one would just about be a record so let me start

with the kind of most imminent which is that these strikes at gatwick airport which were scheduled to

begin tomorrow involving four ground handling companies well they have all been called off, which is marvellous.

The way that it's worked is that, well, they were due to strike starting on Friday the 28th

and going through to the early hours of the following Tuesday, the 2nd of August, and another strike

in a week's time.

Well, gradually, the Unite Union has been having negotiations

with the different ground handling organisations

and they have all now said, okay, we are not going to be on strike.

The only one which doesn't have a full agreement yet,

but the staff are voting on it

is GGS, short for Gatwick Ground Services, which handles British Airways. Indeed, it's

actually part of British Airways, and Whaling, BA's Spanish sister. So that's all good. And I

was going to say, I hate to tell you I told you so but I'm glad to say

that I told you so. These strikes when they're called look pretty chaotic and they're most

definitely hyped up to maximum chaos by the union but then then all too, well, not all too frequently,

I'm very, very glad that everything got settled. They get settled. So that's good.

And the other piece of clad tidings is whiz air and compensation. Well, actually, whiz air

and recompense. They're very slightly different things.

They both kick in if your flight is cancelled or delayed by three hours or more in terms of

arrival. And that's for your cash compensation, but it also applies when you are typically cancelled and you need to get to your destination.

European air passenger rights also I've talked before a very very pro-traveller.

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