A strike by refuelers at Britain's busiest airport Heathrow is set to go ahead later this week.
Hundreds of flights are expected to be delayed after workers rejected a revised pay offer, labour union Unite said on Tuesday.
Refuelling firm AFS has announced three-days of industrial action which begins on Thursday at Britain's busiest airport.
AFS provides fuelling services to more than 70 airlines at the airport including Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, United, SAS, Air France, Emirates, Delta, JAL, KLM and Singapore Airlines.
The company had offered its staff a 10% increase, but this was rejected as it "did not meet their expectations", Unite said.
The union said staff had not had a rise in three years and had therefore seen their pay fall by 15% when inflation was taken into account.
Refuelers will walk out from 5am on Thursday until 4.59am on Sunday.
Heathrow said it was "in discussions with our airline partners on what contingency plans they can implement, including using other fuel suppliers already operating at the airport", Sky News reported.
Unite regional officer Kevin Hall said: "The strike action will cause severe disruption and delays at Heathrow but this dispute is entirely of AFS' own making.
"It initially refused to enter into negotiations and only belatedly made an offer which workers judged entirely unacceptable.
"Even at the eleventh hour, strike action could be avoided if AFS made a substantially improved offer."
General secretary Sharon Graham said AFS is "wholly owned by incredibly wealthy energy companies who are entirely able to provide our members with a decent pay increase".
She added: "This is yet another example of energy companies boosting profits at the expense of workers."
Unite said that AFS - a joint venture operation whose partners include BP, Total Energies, Q8 Aviation and Valero Energy - had seen large profit increases due to rising fuel prices.
If the strike does go ahead on Thursday, it will add to Heathrow's woes.
Over the past several months the airport has had issues with luggage collection and check-in, in part due to staffing levels following the coronavirus lockdowns.
Last week Heathrow told airlines to stop selling tickets for the rest of the summer as it attempts to cut passenger numbers by 4,000 a day.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: "We are aware of proposed industrial action from Aviation Fuel Services (AFS) colleagues at Heathrow, and we are in discussions with our airline partners on what contingency plans they can implement, including using other fuel suppliers already operating at the airport."
AFS has been contacted for comment.
