More Jobs Cut at Britain’s Airports

Swissport, an air service group, has confirmed it will make more than 3,000 redundancies as the COVID crisis continues to damage the travel sector.

Originally the company announced in June that it intended to make 4,500 of its 8,500-strong workforce in the UK and Ireland redundant.  However, Swissport said on Tuesday that after entering extensive consultation with unions it had managed to save 1,300 jobs, with just over 2,000 compulsory redundancies and around 1,180 voluntary redundancies.

Despite this, trade union GMB labelled the cuts a “devastating blow for thousands of our members” – and indicated that the late extension of the furlough scheme may have been a contributing factor to the cuts.

The union said that it had asked Swissport to have the redundant staff re-hired and placed back on furlough after the Chancellor announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme extension, but this request was denied.

A spokesperson from Swissport said: “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has created one of the most challenging periods on record for the aviation industry. In response to the severe and sustained impact of the outbreak, we announced plans in June to reduce the size of Swissport’s workforce by up to 4,556 across the UK.