According to airport bosses, they were ‘hugely worried’ by reports that passengers have cancelled flights and not shown up due to the Omicron Covid variant.
AGS Airports owners Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton said that the airport was still at a standstill, with Glasgow Airport’s traffic declining to its lowest point in almost 50 years.
Brian McClean is AGS Airports’ communication and sustainability director. He told the House of Commons yesterday that the Omicron travel restrictions had been a “hammer blow” to the sector.
According to him, the company was in a huge debt spiral and had fired hundreds of employees as a consequence.
McClean stated that a massive redundancy program last year led to around 3,000 job losses – directly or indirectly.
AGS later stated that these include 200 job losses at airports.
Brian McClean is AGS Airports’ communication director. He described the hammer blow restrictions.
McClean claimed that Glasgow Airport is Scotland’s second busiest, after Edinburgh. He expects to see only 1.9million passengers in the year ahead, which marks the lowest level since 1973.
McClean explained that the company has been in a stalemate for more than 20 months. It is very concerning.
“It’s another setback to our recovery, and the passengers’ confidence that was slowly recovering.
“We have heard anecdotal evidence that passengers are cancelling their flights or not showing up on time for flights.
“We thought we had reached a stage where we could start to rebuild our gardens, but we are now in serious trouble.
“This has caused us to go back several decades.
“We haven’t had any periods of stability during the last twenty months.
Glasgow Airport, Scotland’s second-busiest airport after Edinburgh, is only expected to carry 1.9 million passengers in 2015. This number is the lowest ever since 1973.
“We’re not able to get started – it has been stop-start.
It is difficult to know how the outcome will pan out.
“As we get out of this, there will be fewer airlines, with fewer airplanes, and we’ll see more consolidation.
“But, there will be the same amount of airports. That means that our recovery is going be extremely competitive and that’s what’s bothering us.
“We are deeply concerned about current developments.”
Kay Ryan, chief commercial officer at Loganair, stated to the committee that the airline’s Glasgow base had suffered a’massive impact’ from the pandemic. This was due to the many organizations’ work-from-home policy.
Ms Ryan stated that the levels of 2019 are between 75 and 80 percent.
“I cannot see the 20 percent coming back anytime soon. And that is my concern.”
Edinburgh Airport spokesperson said, “We are sensitive to the fact that scientists need to be restricted in order to learn more. However, we believe they should be discussed and proportionately balanced.
“Unfortunately they are presented currently in a reactary fashion and that is proving detrimental to the recovery industry.
“Passenger confidence, is the key. A quick call to raise restrictions does nothing but make things worse. There are already passengers cancelling flights and simply not showing up.
“This approach isn’t sustainable, and it doesn’t provide solid foundations for planning a recovery.
It is important to recognize the importance of travel and its fragility for economic recovery. We must also support them.