Manchester Airport Group has revealed plans to axe 900 jobs as the government furlough scheme comes to an end.
The owner of Manchester, London Stanstead, and East Midlands airports said on Thursday that it is following a cost-cutting plan in order to ensure the future survival of the business.
Manchester Airports Group had just 2.8 million passengers between April and August, compared to the 30.3 million passengers in the same period a year previously.
Charlie Cornish, the chief executive of the group, 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.”
“The end of the job retention scheme means that we have to consider the number of roles that we can sustain at our airports.”
The airport group, which employs 9,000 people, has already asked employees to accept a year-long 10% pay cut.
The aviation sector has been hit hard by the pandemic. Many within the sector have lobbied the government to end the quarantine period and introduce coronavirus testing on passengers arriving at UK airports.
Today easyJet chief executive, Johan Lundgren, said: “Aviation continues to face the most severe threat in its history and the UK Government urgently needs to step up with a bespoke package of measures to ensure airlines are able to support economic recovery when it comes.”
His comments came as the budget airline revealed that it was on track to its first full-year loss.