Heathrow Airport

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged that the country’s aviation industry is “currently having a terrible, terrible time”.

The imposition of the recent current lockdown, due to end on 2 December, includes a ban on domestic and international travel. “My sympathies are very much with all the employees involved,” Johnson added in response to a question from Conservative MP, Huw Merriman, Chair of the Transport Select Committee.

For Brian Strutton, British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA’s) General Secretary: “If the Government were determined to destroy the airline industry, they couldn’t be doing a better job right now. We’ve had promise after promise of sector support and have seen none.

“In the meantime, hundreds of pilots and thousands of other workers have lost their jobs, and thousands more have taken pay cuts or are working part time.

“This is crunch time. We need action now. The Government simply must respond if it wants a functioning airline industry to exist after the winter to power our economic recovery post-COVID.”

BALPA has issued six demands of the Government including sector-specific financial compensation ring-fenced away from shareholders, a moratorium on any further job losses to prevent long-lasting damage to the sector and the rollout of airport COVID-19 testing ready to go at the end of lockdown as an alternative to the ever-changing quarantine and lockdown restrictions which would give passengers confidence to book and travel.

According to union Unite, catering company DO & CO plans to make nearly 1,100 workers redundant at its Heathrow base, as a result of the effects of the pandemic on aviation.

For the first quarter of the business year 2020/21, DO & CO reported an 86.2% fall in revenues “solely and exclusively attributable to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

In May, it took over the catering services on all BA long-haul flights from Heathrow, and then, in September, it took over the entire catering task on short-haul routes, too. It also opened a 35,000 square metre gourmet kitchen in London.

While the supply chain remains committed to staying open and serving its airline customers during this pandemic, the health and future of the UK’s aviation industry remains at the mercy of the intent of 650 MPs in Westminster.

And don’t even mention Brexit…!!

Leave a Reply