Gatwick Airport, Britain's second largest airport, said it is to axe up to 600 jobs, or 24 per cent of its workforce, because of the travel slump caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gatwick, which is owned by VINCI Airports and Global Infrastructure Partners, said in a statement on Wednesday that it was only operating about 20 per cent of last year’s flights and would now start formal consultations on job cuts.
Vinci acquired control of Gatwick Airport for €32.9 billion in 2018, when it bought a 50.1 per cent stake in the London hub.
Passenger numbers at Gatwick in August, usually one of the busiest months, are down 80 per cent compared to last year,.
Gatwick’s move follows plans by some of its biggest airline customers to shrink, and comes after 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.
- Reuters