Gatwick staff facing redundancy
GATWICK Airport is underway with a workforce restructuring programme under new private equity owner Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which could lead to as many as 120 staff losing their jobs.
Gatwick is understood to have demanded that the members of its commercial and development divisions reapply for their jobs, though new chief executive Stewart Wingate has stressed that the actual number of redundancies will be much lower than 120. It is now in a 90-day consultation period with staff.
GIP – which also owns a majority stake in City Airport – completed its £1.5bn deal to buy Gatwick from BAA in December.
Shortly afterwards, the firm poached Wingate – the former managing director of Stansted airport – to lead an overhaul of Gatwick, which aims to put itself on a level footing with London’s other large airports as it competes for passengers. It also appointed Sir David Rowlands, the former permanent secretary at the Department of Transport, as non-executive chairman of the board.
GIP aims to modernise Gatwick to attract more footfall, including eliminating long queues at security and check-in and insisting on higher standards of politeness among staff.