Manchester Airport warns of significant job losses as passenger numbers remain low

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has warned that there could be nearly 900 job losses across its airports as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic keeps passenger numbers low.

MAG announced 465 jobs are at risk at Manchester Airport, as well as 376 losses at London Stansted, and 51 at East Midlands Airport, both also operated by the group. The need for redundancies has been blamed on a combination of low passenger numbers, as well as a lack of government support for the sector. A lack of available coronavirus testing has also been attributed to the fall in confidence, with many countries, including those on the UK’s travel corridor list, requiring a negative test result for British arrivals to avoid quarantine.

A recovery in passenger numbers is not expected until 2023/24, with traveller numbers at less than 10% (2.8 million) for the April to August peak season of where they stood in 2019.

Charlie Cornish, CEO of MAG, 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.

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

“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.”

The Manchester Airport operator is now in talks with trade unions to consult on job losses as the furlough scheme finishes at the end of October, and will be replaced with the Job Support Scheme, requiring employees to work at least one-third of hours to receive government support.

MAG has previously announced temporary pay cuts for senior executives and reduced its management team in response to the pandemic. Greater Manchester’s 10 councils, who collectively own 64.5% of shares in the group, have also contributed £250 million to support the business.