Heathrow airport to axe more jobs as quarantine hits demand

Britain's Heathrow Airport said it was axing more staff as demand slumped in May and said the outlook for air travel would remain "grim" after the government imposed a 14-day quarantine on arriving passengers.

The airport operator said passenger numbers in May fell by 97% year on year. Under new rules implemented on Monday, people arriving into the UK will now have to self-isolate for 14 days to stop the spread of Covid-19 in a move strongly opposed by airlines and the travel industry.

Heathrow says it launched a voluntary severance scheme - with chief executive John Holland-Kaye warning that efforts to protect frontline roles are "no longer sustainable". No specifics were given on numbers, but Holland-Kaye warned recently that a third of airport's 7,000 jobs could be in jeopardy and 500 of 1,500 management roles have been eliminated.

"While we cannot rule out further job reductions, we will continue to explore options to minimise the number of job losses."

The company said the "grim picture is set to continue thanks to the government’s quarantine policy which requires all arriving passengers to self-isolate for two weeks".

"In line with this decline, the airport has begun to restructure its frontline roles, having already cut one third of managerial roles. Heathrow is urging the government to establish ‘air bridges’ to low risk countries that will enable the country to restart its economy in earnest, protecting livelihoods in aviation and the sectors that rely on it."

British Airways owner IAG, along with Ryanair and easyJet, have started legal action against the quarantine arguing that it had been introduced months late to stop transmission of the virus and would deter people from travelling, killing off any hope of a recovery in the sector.

The trio of airlines argued in their letter that the measures were more severe than those applied where the risks are greater, and impose greater restrictions on arrivals than people infected .

A Ryanair spokesperson, commenting on behalf of the three airlines, said: “These measures are disproportionate and unfair on British citizens as well as international visitors arriving in the UK."

"We urge the government to remove this ineffective visitor quarantine which will have a devastating effect on UK’s tourism industry and will destroy even more thousands of jobs in this unprecedented crisis.”

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said he would not cancel flights because “British people are ignoring this quarantine. They know it’s rubbish”.