Heathrow airport cancels hundreds of flights ahead of strike

London's Heathrow Airport cancelled over 100 flightsahead of planned two-day strike next week, British media reportedFriday.  Unite, Britain's largest union, said its 4,000 members overwhelminglyrejected a revised pay deal ahead of crunch talks between the unionand Heathrow Airport bosses, with plans of a walkout on Monday andTuesday likely to go ahead.The airport, Britain's biggest, pre-emptively cancelled 172 flightsas last minute talks to avoid the action were being held, accordingto British newspapers the Telegraph and the Independent.Heathrow said in a statement that, as part of a contingency plan, itwas working with airlines to "consolidate and reduce the number offlights operating during the strike period."The airport said that it remains committed to finding a solution withUnite, but charged that "the proposed strike action has beenunreasonably designed to impact passengers taking well-deservedholidays." In a statement, the union warned Heathrow bosses "against opting topay millions of pounds in compensation to airlines for cancelledflights and causing passenger misery, rather than going the extramile to give hardworking staff a fair pay rise." Unite said that some 88,000 passengers could be disrupted if 20 percent of flights are cancelled on Monday and Tuesday, amounting tocompensation of 2.3 million pounds (2.8 million dollars) for theairlines affected.The total bill could double if the union goes ahead with a further48-hour strike on August 23-24.