Waterford Airport plans to lay off staff until its troubled UK flights take off
But Unite will ballot for industrial action if its members are put out of work.
WATERFORD AIRPORT HAS said it plans to lay off a handful of staff until its troubled new flights to the UK get off the ground.
Fledgling airline Aer Southeast had intended to launch three services to Britain from this week but was told to stop selling tickets last month after it ran into trouble with Ireland’s aviation watchdog.
Now Waterford Airport has said it plans to put four of its nine ground staff on “temporary lay-off” with effect from 7 August “until there is confirmation of the start of the new scheduled air services”.
In a statement, the airport said: “We remain confident that once new passenger services to/from the UK are in place, we will be in a position to re-instate the personnel whom we now regrettably have to lay off.”
A spokeswoman for the airport told Fora it is not providing further comment at this time.
Industrial action
Meanwhile, trade union Unite said that it will ballot its members at the airport for industrial action if the lay-off plans go ahead. There are nine ground staff at Waterford Airport, seven of whom are union members.
Through a statement, Unite described the plans for temporary lay-offs as “unacceptable” and warned that its members will refuse to work additional hours to replace those laid off.
Unite's head office
Unite regional officer Tony Kelly – who described Waterford Airport as “a crucial facility in the south-east” – criticised airport management’s handling of the Aer Southeast issue.
He said he was “putting the airport on notice that Unite members will refuse to work additional hours to replace those laid off”.
“If management persists in its plans we will have no option but to ballot for industrial action,” Kelly said.
Aer Southeast
This comes a year after airport workers went on strike over cuts to their working hours following the closure of VLM’s Waterford to London-Luton flight, the regional airport’s only commercial service.
It was announced in June of this year that newly founded Irish airline Aer Southeast would replace VLM as the only commercial operator at the airport.
The airline began marketing fares – with prices from €79 one-way - to London-Luton, Manchester and Birmingham and had planned to start operating the flights from 24 July.
However, the services have since been put on hold after the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) told the airline to stop trading because it did not have the required tour operator licence to do so.
In recent weeks, Aer Southeast announced that it would start issuing refunds to passengers who had already booked tickets because the services would not be going ahead as planned.
At the time, the airline’s chief executive, Einar Adalsteinsson, said Aer Southeast would “work closely with CAR in the coming weeks to ensure that the correct licensing system is put in place”.
He said at the time that it was hoped the services would still go ahead later this year.
