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LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Gatwick Airport, Britain's no.2
airport to the south of London, said it needed to axe up to 600
jobs, nearly a quarter of its workforce, because of the travel
slump caused by COVID-19.
The travel industry has been hit hard by the pandemic.
Lockdowns which prevented flying from March to June have been
replaced in the UK by quarantine rules, stopping a hoped-for
rebound in traffic and leading to thousands of job losses.
Gatwick, owned by VINCI Airports and Global Infrastructure
Partners, said on Wednesday it would start consultation about
shedding 600 jobs, as it was only operating at about 20% of last
year's capacity.
Passenger numbers at Gatwick in August, usually one of the
busiest months, are down 80% compared to last year, it added.
Gatwick's move follows plans by some of its biggest airline
customers to shrink, and comes after the UK's no.1 airport,
Heathrow, launched a voluntary redundancy scheme and said it
could not rule out further job losses.
easyJet, British Airways and Virgin
Atlantic have already announced about 20,000 job cuts between
them and warned travel will take years to recover. BA and Virgin
have both suspended operations at Gatwick for the time being.
Airports and airlines in the UK have called on ministers to
scrap the quarantine policy in favour of a testing regime which
would allow more travel.
"We are in ongoing talks with government to see what sector
specific support can be put in place for the industry at this
time," Gatwick CEO Stewart Wingate said.
Gatwick said that currently 75% of its staff were on the
government's job retention scheme which is due to end in
October.
(Reporting by Akshay Lodaya and Sarah Young; editing by Kate
Holton and Stephen Addison)
