Sydney Airport cuts nearly a quarter of jobs

Nearly a quarter of the staff at Sydney Airport will be made redundant as the coronavirus pandemic continues to decimate the travel industry.

Nearly a quarter of the staff at Sydney Airport will be made redundant after the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the travel industry.

In an email to staff seen by NCA NewsWire, CEO Geoff Culbert said with no clarity on when travel might return to normal and current losses of $20 million each month, the business was forced to make some “really hard decisions”.

“Today I am announcing a restructure that will impact 118 roles across the organisation, which equates to 22 per cent of our workforce,” he wrote.

“This is such a tough decision and one I hoped we would never have to make. No one who loses their job today deserves that outcome.

“We’ve fought hard for every job and we hoped we would never be in this position, but the circumstances have overcome us and for that I’m truly sorry.”

Sydney Airport announced it would make nearly a quarter of its staff redundant on Tuesday after revealing the business is losing $20 million a month because of the coronavirus pandemic. Picture: Supplied

Job losses are mainly coming from corporate roles and project management and construction teams. Security roles were all kept in place.

The email laid bare the dire financial situation the airport faces as international travel is all but ended and many states continue to keep border controls in place.

Sydney Airport reported losses of $52 million in the last financial year, most of that occurring between April and June.

Mr Culbert said the airport was “burning through millions of dollars” trying to run at full capacity – a plan that is not sustainable with no end date to the pandemic in sight.

He told employees the decision was made on three principles – the first of those to reduce costs.

“We are currently operating the business at a loss, roughly $20 million a month, and we need to reduce costs to reduce operating loss,” Mr Culbert wrote.

The email shared with staff. Picture: Supplied

The CEO said the second principle was that staff numbers needed to reflect airport activity, which is currently down 95 per cent, and the third was to try to prioritise the “frontline” jobs, many of which had been staffed by the same person for decades.

“There are people who have been loyal to the airport for a large part of their career, if not their entire career, and we wanted to honour that loyalty,” the email read.

Sydney Airport had given a six-month job guarantee to its employees in April but announced it could not continue the guarantee after September as a dip in travel began to take a toll in July.

An airport spokesman confirmed to NCA NewsWire the “sad and difficult news” of the job losses had been announced on Wednesday.

“This is an incredibly hard time for Sydney Airport’s tight-knit team and another tough reminder of the impact COVID-19 is having on the aviation industry,” they said.