More than 400 jobs are at risk at Manchester Airport as it grapples with the consequences of the worldwide decline in travel during the pandemic

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) blamed a fall in passenger confidence in the travel industry due to a recent spike in coronavirus figures, “an absence of support for the sector” and a lack of testing for UK passengers.

MAG chief executive, Charlie Cornish, 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.”

Unite regional co-ordinating officer Lawrence Chapple-Gill said: “This announcement will come as a bitter blow to the hard working staff at Manchester airport.

“They and their families now face a very difficult and unsettling time but Unite will support them every step of the way.

“Unite will do everything it can to reduce job losses and seek to ensure that any eventual redundancies are voluntary and not compulsory in nature.

“These job losses are an inevitable consequence of the government’s failure to provide sector specific support to the aviation industry, the sector which has been most heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Once Covid-19 is under control, confidence will return to the industry and flights will increase. It is a total failure of government to not be assisting the industry and its workforce through this crisis in order to ensure it can quickly recover when the virus abates.

“The chancellor first promised sector support in March. An aviation recovery plan was promised last month. Nothing has materialised and job losses are increasing by the day.”

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