Manchester Airport bosses have asked firefighters to work on the baggage belts amid a workforce shortage, it's been claimed - sparking fears of more disruption and queues for passengers in the busy summer months ahead.
As the aviation sector was savaged by the pandemic, it’s estimated there were more than 2,000 redundancies made from Manchester Airport. They included around 700 people employed directly by the hub, including in management positions, and more than 1,500 by outside employers like baggage handling agents and airlines.
Now travel restrictions are lifting, passenger numbers are on the rise, and plans to reopen Terminal 3 are also in the pipeline. But questions are being raised around whether there will be the workforce to meet demand in what Manchester Airport bosses have described as an 'extremely challenging' labour market.
READ MORE: Pictures show chaos at Manchester Airport as passengers complain of 'mile long queues'
One Manchester Airports Group (MAG) staff member who asked not to be named told the Manchester Evening News : “It’s been so bad that they have been asking firefighters, engineers and parking staff to offload the bags onto the conveyors in the Arrivals hall.
“I think the summer is going to be horrendous, at this rate we just won’t have the staff, and morale is already low.
"I just hope that we get the staff we need in time and get back to normal."
It’s understood firefighters refused to take on the baggage duties, although staff from other departments have stepped up to help.
The staffing shortage, with bosses struggling to fill the vacancies left by the mass exodus, is understood to have hit a range of departments, including Security and agencies which handle passengers' baggage. It's sparked fears among insiders that those issues suffered by passengers last week - when scores of holidaymakers were forced to leave the hub without their luggage - could be seen on a bigger scale during the busy summer months.
On Monday, meanwhile, passengers claimed to have endured three-hour queues at security. Manchester Airport said this was due to a 'greater number of passengers than expected'.
Manchester Airport has said that in recent months, there have been a small number of instances when they, and other organisations, have asked other teams to support the baggage operation for a 'short period of time'.
They said they were working to ensure all third parties had the support and resource they needed as the aviation industry continues to recover.
This continued recovery is no doubt a welcome development, not least for the thousands of staff who work there, communities like Wythenshawe, and the councils which will be hoping for a dividend in the coming years thanks to their part-ownership.
Although the hub is still a way off its pre-pandemic peak, the numbers are positive. From November 2021 to February 2022, more than 940,000 passengers travelled through the hub, compared to 198,000 in 2020, at the height of the pandemic hit.
During the same period in 2019, there were more than 2.7m passengers, but staff say numbers are now rising steadily. However, with growing passenger numbers comes the need for a bigger workforce.
Understood to be due in part to aviation staff who were followed furloughed or made redundant now having found work elsewhere, the problem has been answered by an urgent recruitment drive ahead of the busy summer months ahead.
A jobs fair last month hosted by MAG and a number of its partner agencies had more than 500 jobs on offer.
These included roles working for MAG directly, in areas like passenger security, customer services, car parks and hospitality, and working for ground handlers and contractors including Jet2com, Swissport and baggage handlers like Menzies and Dnata. There were also vacancies at UK Border Force, which controls immigration - also at the centre of recent queue controversy.
One job fair attendee told the Manchester Evening News : “They were advertising a certain number of jobs but when I started talking to people they were saying there are thousands of jobs and that they just couldn’t recruit the baggage handlers they need.
“They said passengers were having to be sent their bags by courier, which must be costing a fortune.
“I think a lot of staff who went on furlough didn’t come back because they got jobs where they didn’t have to start at 2am.”
Meanwhile, other businesses in south Manchester, including logistics operations like Amazon and DHL, continued to thrive through the Covid crisis, and are potentially able to offer higher rates of pay for less anti-social hours.
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Mike Kane, MP for Wythenshawe and shadow aviation minister, believes the sector needs more Government assistance to persuade people back into aviation.
He added: “Aviation has been struggling to recover but the biggest struggle is getting the workforce back as it expands again.
“I think the Government needs to look at a specific aviation package to help in its recovery.”
What Manchester Airport says:
On staffing the operation:
“Many organisations are involved in running an airport, and Manchester Airport is committed to adopting a ‘one team’ culture when delivering its daily operations. We engage closely with all our partners – including handling agents, airlines, retailers and Border Force – to understand the challenges they are facing and, where necessary, work together to deliver the best possible service to our customers.
“In recent months, there have been a small number of instances when handling agents have identified short-term resource issues. On these occasions, Manchester Airport and several other organisations asked some of their teams to support the baggage operation for a short period of time to minimise disruption to customers.
“It was pleasing to see colleagues from a range of different organisations and departments come together to help each other in this way and, moving forward, we are working closely with all third parties to ensure they have the support and resource they need as the aviation industry continues to recover.”
On defined benefit pensions:
“Unfortunately, like other companies across a wide range of industries and following the devastating impact of the pandemic on our business we carried out a detailed consultation in partnership with our trade unions about the closure of our defined benefit pension scheme.
"This resulted in the scheme closing last year, with no impact to contributions accrued by colleagues up to that point and an enhanced rate of contribution to our defined contribution scheme for a transitionary period.”
On recruitment:
“Covid-19 had a massive impact on our sector, with it being the worst affected industry according to the ONS. So at the start of the pandemic we took action to reduce costs and, as a last resort, this included some colleagues sadly leaving the business.
“Travel restrictions at home and abroad created huge uncertainty for our industry and made it difficult to plan a proper recovery. Since those restrictions began finally to be removed at the start of the year, we have been pleased to see passengers returning to the airport.
“This has allowed us to recruit hundreds of jobs in the region, to support the remobilisation of our operations and meet the strong demand for international travel that has emerged.
“This major recruitment drive has including hosting a series of jobs fairs, and we have been encouraged by a large number of applications that we continue to work through.
“The recovery of the whole UK economy does mean that we are faced with an extremely challenging labour market, as companies in many different sectors look to recruit. Despite these challenges we are working hard with all our partners to fill all available posts in time for summer.”
What the Department for Transport says:
A DfT spokesperson said: “We recognise that the aviation sector has experienced challenging times over the last two years, which is why businesses have been able to draw from an unprecedented £8 billion of Government support since the start of the pandemic."
As background they referred to MAG's recruitment campaign to fill a thousand roles across three airports and said the DfT had launched a skills retention scheme for current and former aviation workers to register their skills and be notified of job vacancies.
There is also a scheme to connect aviation students with employers, they said.
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