Job uncertainty at Manston Airport
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by Martin Jefferies
Jobs could be lost at Kent International Airport after
it launched a widescale review of all staff.
Charles Buchanan, chief executive of Infratil, the company which
owns Manston airport, said it was reviewing "working patterns and
conditions of all staff".
The consultation will last for at least 90 days.
Mr Buchanan (pictured below) said: "We have more than 100
employees at Manston, many of whom have been with us for years and
joined when the airport was under different ownership.
"We are now in a situation where some of the working
arrangements we have in place do not match the current activity of
the business.
"This is something we must rectify to ensure the airport has a
sustainable future and that we match our resources to the needs of
our customers."
Mr Buchanan said Infratil was not planning to "identify
significant redundancies".
But he added: "At this stage, I cannot guarantee that there
won't be some job losses.
"We are also reviewing all our external
contracts to consider which of these could be performed more
effectively in-house, possibly creating new positions at the
airport.
"As the consultation will last a minimum of three months it is
impossible to say what the outcome will be."
The news comes just days after budget airline Flybe announced it
was scrapping its Manston-Manchester route and replacing it with
flights to Belfast.
More than 28,000 people travelled through the airport in the 10
months to the end of January compared to just 4,200 a year before,
as a result of the new scheduled services to Edinburgh and
Manchester.
However, the amount of freight handled by the airport fell to
1,800 tonnes in January - down by almost a third on the previous
year.
The airport terminal building was recently refurbished and is
capable of handling up to 700,000 passengers every year.
Infratil recently announced that passenger numbers at another of
its airports, Glasgow Prestwick, fell by 40 per cent in January
compared to the year before.
The company has a strong presence in New Zealand, where it owns
Wellington Airport and the NZ Bus operation.
Wednesday, March 23 2011
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