Strikes scheduled over the Bank Holiday weekend at Stansted, Gatwick and Manchester airports have been called off.

Baggage handlers and cabin crew voted to call off the action after reaching a pay deal with airport bosses. The two 24-hour walk-outs, scheduled for August 25 and 29, threatened to disrupt the travel plans of up to 1.3 million Britons heading abroad for the Bank Holiday weekend.

However, a separate GMB strike involving 30 security scanners at Stansted airport, which will handle some 320,000 passengers over the weekend, is still due to go ahead. The strike, scheduled for Monday 25 August, is expected to cause widespread disruption despite the relatively small numbers of workers involved.

A spokeswoman for GMB told Times Online: “We think the disruption will be quite severe because our members have a key role in the scanning of luggage.”

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However, the airport operator BAA claims disruption will be minimal: a statement on the organisation's website reads: "... some industrial action is still planned for Monday 25 August by Airfield Services (who provide some baggage services to the airport). However, we understand from the contingency plans that Airfield Services have in place this will cause minimal disruption - if any - to the airport's operation."

An estimated two million Britons are heading abroad over the Bank Holiday weekend, according to the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta).

The busiest days at the UK’s airports are expected to be Friday and Saturday, when almost one million people will fly from airports in the south east alone. In addition, 85,000 people are expected to use the Eurostar over the weekend, and 400,000 are headed to the continent by ferry or the Eurotunnel.

The most popular destinations for breaks this weekend are the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain, and the Greek islands, according to Abta, with city breaks to destinations including New York, Amsterdam, Dublin and Rome, also popular.

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