Airport travellers warned of Christmas disruption due to baggage dispute
THE Unite union is warning of Christmas travel disruption at several airports – including Birmingham – unless Scandinavian baggage carrier Aviator can transfer about 1,700 staff to other handlers.
Aviator is closing its operations on November 30.
Unite, the country’s largest union, claims that Aviator is closing down its UK operations at Manchester, Birmingham, Gatwick, and Newcastle airports because it is not making money.
Unite has now called for clarity about what Aviator is planning to do to ensure smooth continuity of check-in, refuelling, and baggage handling services.
Otherwise, Christmas travel disruption was possible, the union has warned.
The union called on the airlines and/or airport owners to take on the Aviator workforce as a matter of urgency and to end the current state of limbo.
Unite said that there were about 1,200 Aviator staff at Gatwick servicing BA, Norwegian, Thomas Cook, Thomson and Virgin.
Meanwhile, there are 196 staff at Birmingham looking after 14 airlines, including Air India, American Airlines, Monarch, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.
At Manchester, there was a 192-strong workforce servicing Norwegian, Thomas Cook and SAS. At Newcastle, there were 145 employees and the airlines included BMI, easyJet and Jet2.
Unite national officer for civil air transport Oliver Richardson said: “Unite will be seeking assurances from the company, airlines, other handlers and ultimately, the airports that there will be no compulsory redundancies
“It is a matter of serious concern for both our members and the traveling public that so close to Christmas most of the airlines have not announced where their baggage handling and check-in contracts are going.
“The airport owners and the airlines, which require these services for their planes to land and take-off efficiently, need to get their skates on to sort this out, without any detriment to the staff jobs, pay and conditions, otherwise Christmas travel chaos is on the cards.”
TheBusinessDesk has contacted Aviator for a comment.
