A planned strike by thousands of workers at Heathrow Airport has been suspended while they vote on the latest pay offer.

Flights had been expected to face disruption at Britain's biggest airport during the industrial action on the Friday and Saturday of the August bank holiday weekend.

The Unite union had warned of "summer travel chaos", with walkouts scheduled on a number of days during the peak season.

Unite confirmed that a ballot is under way on the revised pay offer, made by Heathrow to more than 4,000 security, airside operations and passenger services staff.

The vote closes on September 2, and the union said the strike "has been suspended to allow the ballot to take place".

A Heathrow spokesman said: "We're pleased that Unite has postponed the strike action scheduled for August 23 and 24 to give union members the time to consider our revised offer.

"We have put an additional £2.5 million on the table since talks began, with our current offer bringing the total pay rise to 7.8% over two years for all frontline colleagues.

"This is well above RPI (inflation), higher than any other UK airport and helps to provide long-term wage certainty and job security.