Manchester Airports Group poised for mass job losses

Manchester Airport Group (MAG) has blamed the reduction in government support and the bleak outlook for travel as it confirmed 900 jobs are at risk across its three airports.

It said 465 roles at Manchester Airport, 376 roles at Stansted Airport and 51 at East Midlands Airport are under threat.

Discussions with unions will soon get underway with the aim of ‘protecting as many jobs as possible’.

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.

"The end of the Job Retention Scheme means that we have to consider the number of roles that we can sustain at our airports. 

"We will be discussing these issues with our trade unions, and consulting them fully on a range of options for reducing the size and overall cost of our workforce. We want to work with them to make sure we minimise the impact on our people as much as we can."

MAG has seen traffic through its airports fall 90% since March with overall passenger demand not expected to recover fully before 2023-24.

The company said the prospects for a strong recovery over the next 12 months have declined as Covid re-emerged across the UK and Europe.

The absence of dedicated support for the aviation sector, coupled with a lack of progress in introducing testing for UK passengers, has continued to undermine consumer confidence, it said.

The job losses come on top of a 10% pay cut for ever employee and the freezing of capital investment and non-essential expenditure.

MAG said the size of its management team has also been reduced.

"The reduction in Government financial support, combined with a more challenging outlook, means that MAG now needs to propose further steps to reduce the size of its workforce to secure the long-term future of the business," the company said in a statement.

"I want to thank everyone across MAG for the dedication they have shown through the toughest summer our industry has ever seen," Cornish added. "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.

"We are proud of our long-standing role in supporting communities around our airports and underpinning the employment of more than 130,000 people across the UK. We will continue to work to protect as many jobs as possible, maintain dialogue with our trade unions, and continue to make the case to Government for the direct support that UK aviation needs."