Half of Kerry Airport's employees to be laid off
Place Employees Four Redundancy Will Temporary Monday, On From Is That November The Least File At 16, Understood Kerry It Weeks Airport Picture For
Kerry Airport is to shed “a significant number” of its staff, it announced this morning.
Around 30 people - half its employees - will be affected.
It is understood these employees are to be placed on temporary redundancy from Monday, November 16, for at least four weeks.
The airport has sounded increasing warnings in recent months, but has remained hopeful there will be some upturn for Christmas with people returning from overseas.
The decision to shed staff follows the announcement by Ryanair to cease all flights from Munster from November 14.
The airport with links to London, Germany, and summer destinations in Spain and Portugal, has suffered a dramatic collapse in business because of Covid-19.
Overwhelmingly dependant on Ryanair, Kerry’s remaining London flights, which had already been cut, will now cease.
The airport will remain open for the twice-daily subsidised regional Dublin-Kerry flight - its only remaining scheduled service.
The public service obligation regional Kerry to Dublin flights are operated by Aer Lingus contractor Stobart Air.
Emergency services will also be facilitated.
Management has advised staff that to stem further financial losses "a significant number" would be placed on temporary redundancy.
“The Airport will remain open throughout and beyond the current Level 5 restrictions to service the Kerry-Dublin PSO flights, but the four-week cancellation of all Ryanair flights has led to this unfortunate decision,” it said in a statement.
“Every effort has been made until now to minimise the impact of the financial losses associated with this downturn in activity.
"Every avenue to prevent the decisions I now make have been exhausted and I sincerely thank every one of my colleagues for the efforts they have made to keep all our operations in place since March,” CEO John Mulhern said.
The duration of this layoff is uncertain at present and may well extend beyond four weeks, while a cohort of people who remain will cover multiple operational requirements, he said.
The airport managed to retain all of its 67 staff during the last lockdown.
“I fully understand how upsetting this news is for everybody and this is certainly a day we all fought so bravely to avoid,” Mr Mulhern said.
2019 had been a good year for Kerry Airport with passenger numbers of almost 370,000, its AGM heard in September.
The routes that performed best were the subsidised Kerry-Dublin route, with over 58,000 passengers, and the London–Stansted and London-Luton routes, along with the German Frankfurt-Han route.
However, during the second quarter of this year, only 808 passengers travelled through Kerry Airport, all on the Aer Lingus Regional Kerry-Dublin route. This compares to 102,534 on all routes for the same period last year.