Coalition pushes for aviation support
Aviation unions have joined with the TUC, Heathrow Airport and Swissport in urging the government to work with the industry and its workforce to protect the UK aviation sector.
Aviation is one of the industries which has been hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with travel restrictions causing demand to fall to just 2% of its previous levels.
The statement notes that thousands of jobs in the sector have already been lost, and an estimated 124,000 more are at risk across it and the industries it supports.
It calls for:
• Treasury funding to help the industry survive until pre-pandemic levels of travel are safe again;
• the Department for Health and Social Care to provide a testing framework that will help with the safe lifting of quarantine requirements, along with support for aviation employers and unions on the development of requirements and standards for safely re-opening; and
• the Department for Transport to establish a tripartite body of government, trade unions and industry to guide aviation into recovery and beyond.