Britain's biggest airports, airlines and aviation services groups have issued a joint plea to Boris Johnson to offer their employees a lifeline by extending the government's wage subsidy scheme"for a few more months".
Sky News has seen a letter from some of the industry's most prominent executives to the prime minister in which they argue for a"a tapered withdrawal of the scheme, allowing us to return staff to full employment as our sector begins to recover". The letter is signed by the chief executives of Airlines UK and the Airport Operators Association, as well as the bosses of the big ground-handling groups Dnata, Menzies Aviation, Swissport and WFS.
It represents the latest in a series of increasingly frantic efforts from aviation bosses to persuade the government that their sector is on the brink of mass redundancies amid expectations that recovery in demand for flights will be painstakingly slow. Since the start of last week, British Airways, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic Airways have collectively announced plans to cut up to 18,000 jobs.Reports this week have suggested that Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will announce within days changes to theMr Sunak has signalled that theMore from Covid-19
They’re needing to treat their customers with some respect or they’ll never come back. Feel for the workers not the execs
If I had a business that didn't have any work for 6 week, could I 'beg the government to pay my employees' or should I caay operating capital to see me through rough times... Heathrow Airport for example said yesterday it had cash reserves to see it through for approx 1 Yr.
Do you know how much their pilots earn? There's no way the tax payer should be footing that wage.
Sky news 👇🏼