MP warns of threat to 1,500 jobs at airport
STOCKPORT’S MP has laid bare the ‘catastrophic’ impact on Manchester Airport caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Navendu Mishra has revealed how 1,500 redundancies have been proposed after ‘passenger levels and revenue dropped to historic lows.’
Thousands more jobs are at risk and one in four senior managers are to be laid off, Mr Mishra told MPs, as he called on the Government to ‘act now’ and offer more support for the industry.
Describing the airport as ‘central to everything we do in the North West,’ Mr Mishra told the Commons it employs 25,000 people directly, supports another 76,000 jobs in related industries and contributes £4.5bn to the local economy.
But, the MP said, at the height of the crisis the airport’s revenue and passenger numbers dropped by up to 99 per cent, when compared to the same time last year.
And he warned that ‘thousands of workers face redundancy’ if the Government does not ‘intervene to save the airport, its airlines and the businesses that rely on it.’
Mr Mishra said: “While the furlough scheme has been of some help the money is little more than a drop in the ocean, accounting for just five per cent of the airport’s fixed costs.
“The situation will not simply end with the resumption of air travel.
“Even with an increased number of air bridges and an end to quarantine, the aviation industry has warned that there may not be a return to anything like normality until the second half of 2021.
“And even then the numbers are only expected to be about 90 per cent of the precrisis levels.
“The Government must therefore offer a sectoral support package that ensures the industry has the backing and confidence it needs to recover as quickly as possible and mitigate job losses and protect skilled jobs.
“If the Government doesn’t step in businesses will continue to collapse and tens of thousands of workers will lose their jobs.”
Mr Mishra called on the Government to offer a ‘sector specific’ extension to the furlough scheme after it expires in October, provide business rates relief to airports, priortise loans or take stakes in struggling avaiation companies, and reduce air passenger duty, among a number of other measures.
In reply Kelly Tolhurst, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, said the Government had put in place an ‘unprecedented package of measures to protect the economy and jobs,’ which had ‘enabled airlines, airports and ground handlers to benefit from significant amounts of tax-payer support.’
Ms Tolhurst said businesses that needed more help could ‘talk to us for further support.’
She added: “We are all aware of the scale of the challenge in the aviation sector as a result of Covid19
“The efforts we are making in partnership with the sector are to ensure that UK aviation can recover and airports such as Manchester and the communities they serve can recovery and prosper just as they have in the past.”