Airport’s government support covers only 1pc of its losses during pandemic

GOVERNMENT support covered just 1 per cent of a major airport’s losses during the pandemic, its boss has claimed.

Ronald Leitch, Glasgow Airport operations director, said it is seeing only 6,000-9,000 passengers a day, compared with 35,000 during an average August.

He added: ‘In terms of government support to date, outside of furlough, it has been rates relief which was open to most businesses, but the relief was dwarfed significantly by our losses.

‘It was almost about 1 per cent of our losses overall. We are trying to maximise the use of furlough to have staff available, but due to the uncertainty, no one can really predict what schedules and loads are going to look like.’

In June, the travel industry demanded clarity on when rules which have made international travel unviable for most Scots will be lifted.

Finance secretary Kate Forbes has said extra support for the sector was ‘challenging’ because of a ‘lack of consequential funding’, but contact has been made with the UK Government to see whether more funding can be made available.