Stansted Airport set to axe nearly 400 jobs as demand plunges
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Stansted Airport is set to cut nearly 400 jobs following a sharp drop in passenger numbers amid a second wave of the pandemic.
The airport’s owner, Manchester Airports Group (MAG), confirmed it will begin discussions with unions on proposals to reduce employee costs at Stansted, Manchester and East Midlands airports.
The UK’s largest airport group said the proposals could mean the loss of 376 roles at Stansted, as well as 465 proposed job cuts at Manchester Airport and a further 51 at East Midlands.
It follows a 75 per cent reduction in current monthly demand for travel through MAG’s airports, and a staggering 90 per cent reduction compared with the previous year.
As the virus re-emerges through Europe and the UK passenger demand has dropped considerably. The group said “the absence of dedicated support for the aviation sector” coupled with a lack of progress on airport testing for UK passengers had “continued to undermine consumer confidence in air travel for the next year”.
The aviation sector has been pushing for airport testing for months but the government has proved resistant, claiming it is not a “silver bullet”.
MAG chief executive Charlie Cornish said: ” “By now, we would have hoped to see a strong and sustained recovery in demand. Unfortunately, the resurgence of the virus across Europe and the reintroduction of travel restrictions have meant this has not happened.”
“With uncertainty about when a vaccine will be widely available, we need to be realistic about when demand is likely to recover.”
Aviation has been one of the hardest hit sectors since the outbreak of coronavirus, with hundreds of job cuts already announced.
MAG had already implemented cost-cutting measures at the start of the pandemic, including asking every employee to take a 10 per cent pay cut for a year. It also paused capital investment and non-essential expenditure.
“MAG and other UK airports remain fundamentally strong businesses that will play an important role in driving the country’s recovery, but the specific and short term pressures of the pandemic are exceptional and particularly challenging for our sector”, Cornish added.
Gatwick has announced plans to cut 600 jobs, a quarter of its workforce, while Heathrow has asked 2,500 employees to accept huge pay cuts.
Last month London City Airport announced it was planning 239 job cuts as passenger numbers plunged due to the pandemic.
The airport suspended commercial flights in March due to a sharp drop in commercial travel, and passenger numbers remained “well below” pre-Covid levels when they resumed in June.