Hundreds of jobs are under threat at Manchester Airport as coronavirus continues to have a devastating impact on the travel industry.
MAG, the UK's largest airport group, is proposing to cut 465 jobs at Manchester Airport, along with 376 at Stansted Airport and 51 at East Midlands Airport, following a 90% reduction in demand for travel.
Charlie Cornish, CEO of MAG, 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.
"I want to thank everyone across MAG for the dedication they have shown through the toughest summer our industry has ever seen. MAG and other UK airports remain fundamentally strong businesses that will play an important role in driving the country's recovery, but the specific and short term pressures of the pandemic are exceptional and particularly challenging for our sector.
"We are proud of our long-standing role in supporting communities around our airports and underpinning the employment of more than 130,000 people across the UK. We will continue to work to protect as many jobs as possible, maintain dialogue with our trade unions, and continue to make the case to Government for the direct support that UK aviation needs."
All of these proposed measures will be subject to consultation with MAG's unions and staff across Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands Airports.
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The new arrangements will be introduced this month to help alleviate the congestion caused by the high volume of "kiss and fly" and the recirculation of cars.
From June, drivers will be charged an express drop-off fee of £3 for staying up to five minutes or £4 for six to ten minutes.
Remember this feeble excuse well Charlie with your 90% drop in demand for travel clearly the right thing to do is to scrap your charges