Castle Donington
AIRPORT. Bosses at the East Midlands Airport are not expecting a big passenger revival in the summer but are hoping a variety of measures will improve the current situation.
Members of the airport independent consultative committee have been told that the pandemic is continuing to have a devastating impact with national travel restrictions in the UK and overseas almost entirely suppressing passenger demand, which is expected to continue for several months.
While the suspension of the passenger operation has decimated income there have been numerous efforts to mitigate costs and have been made and managing director Karen Smart says: “We have continued to implement cost mitigation measures as far as possible, by taking fast and decisive action to protect our infrastructure.”
This has included utilising the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, restructuring the company to reduce management and back-office costs, standing down all contractors and reviewing non-staff operating costs, suspending all capital expenditure, except for safety-critical work or near-complete projects that would be cheaper to finish than to cancel contracts.
She stresses: “Unfortunately, these actions were not accompanied by any significant direct support for airports from the Government, despite our passenger operation being essentially closed down by travel restrictions.
“Currently the airport is updating its outlook based on the latest state of the virus and likely travel restrictions and consumer behaviour. Our projections and plans as a business are therefore built entirely on the speed of the recovery in time for summer. They will be heavily reliant on the fast and effective deployment of the vaccine, how quickly governments in the UK and other countries relax travel restrictions, and consumer appetite and financial ability to return to international travel. Our modelling scenarios suggest traffic will remain significantly reduced during the key summer months with considerable uncertainty remaining.”
Despite the financial implications, the airport has remained open and operational to service planned passenger flights, as well as a full cargo operation. During the pandemic to support the essential movements of critical freight in and out of the country.
The EMA cargo operation has continued to provide resilience to businesses throughout the pandemic. As many long-haul passenger services from airports like Heathrow have been grounded or reduced, there has been less belly hold capacity for goods. Therefore, customers who would normally use these services have had to increasingly rely on the operations of dedicated air cargo operators such as those with global hub operations at EMA. The airport has played a critical role in the speedy transportation of PPE and medical equipment from manufacturers to the NHS front line throughout the pandemic.
It has also allowed many local businesses to continue to export and import parts which are vital to the assembly of products which has enabled them to keep trading in difficult circumstances.
The managing director adds: “There is an intention to introduce a proactive testing process for colleagues to reduce the spread of
Covid-19 on airport sites and to help us manage response in the event of a positive case. Proactive testing of critical workers will provide an additional layer of protection by identifying colleagues who are asymptomatic and could be unknowingly spreading the virus to others. “