CHRISTMAS CHAOS LOOMS Closure of Swedish baggage handling company could cause problems in UK

Posted on 10/20/2016 | About Sweden

There could be disruptions this Christmas at four UK airports due to the closure of Scandinavian baggage carrier company Aviator. The UK union Unite says Aviator is closing its operations on November 30 at Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle airports because it is 'not making money'.

Unite says the Swedish based company needs to transfer about 1,700 staff to other handlers, or there could be major disruption.
And the union wants to know what Aviator is planning to do to ensure continuity of check-in, refuelling, and baggage handling services.
Oliver Richardson, Unite national officer for civil air transport, said the union wants to be assured by the Aviator, airlines, other handlers and the airports that there will be no compulsory redundancies.
"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."
Unite says there are about 1,200 Aviator staff at Gatwick servicing BA, Norwegian, Thomas Cook, Thomson and Virgin.
At Birmingham there are 196 staff looking after 14 airlines, including Air India, American Airlines, Monarch, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.
At Manchester, there is a 192-strong workforce servicing Norwegian, Thomas Cook and SAS, while at Newcastle 145 employees look after the baggage handling for several airlines included BMI, easyJet and Jet2.