With the New Year ringing in, BAA and Virgin Atlantic Airline workers plan to check out with a series of strikes that could stall flights and ground planes throughout January. In a maddening on-again off-again, today-you-fly-but-tomorrow-you-don’t sort of way, UK business travelers will face shutdowns at BAA’s seven airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton, with strikes planned for 24 hours on January 7 and January 14, and 48 hours on January 17.

We’ve heard reports that BAA has begun training hundreds of senior management to screen passengers if Unite Union’s fire crews, maintenance workers and clerical and security staff strike as expected. While we relish the idea of everyone rolling up their sleeves, security and trained fire crews sound terribly important.

At the same time, Virgin Atlantic faces industrial action, with its cabin crews expected to strike on Jan. 9, 10, 16 and 17. The airline says it will be just fine, but has already cancelled a number of flights to and from London, and more cancellations are expected.

At the very least, queues will be slow, but it’s more likely that travelers will be stranded— in dirty airports. Suddenly, business premier through the Chunnel and under the sea sounds completely reasonable.