Manchester Airport: Police could help tackle 'chaos', mayor says

Police and fire and rescue service staff could be drafted in to help tackle the chaos at Manchester Airport, the region's mayor has said.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is meeting airport bosses to discuss the "concerning" current situation.

Travellers have criticised long delays and missed flights over the weekend.

Mr Burnham said he would be seeking reassurance about what is being done to bring the situation under control, but will also offer his support.

Travellers at the airport have faced long queues for check-in and security over the past month, with some missing flights at the start of the Easter school holidays.

Manchester Airport has previously apologised and said the industry was "facing staff shortages and recruitment challenges".

"I have been in touch with colleagues at Greater Manchester Police at the weekend to see what we can do to support the airport," Mr Burnham said.

"It's a difficult moment for airports around the world having laid low for the pandemic, they've had to scale up very quickly.

"But at the same time, we don't want to see the scenes that we saw at the weekend and we obviously need to work with them to work through those issues and make sure we're managing those things and giving the right information to the public and being clear about the plan to get things to an acceptable level."

Manchester Airports Group is partly owned by the 10 local authorities of Greater Manchester, with the biggest stake held by Manchester Council, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Mr Burnham said although the airport was run independently of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, it matters "hugely" to the city-region.

"To some degree, airports all over the world are going through this because gearing up an airport after they're almost ground to a halt over the last couple of years is a really hard thing to do," he added.

"Airports need staff across security, check-in, retail - there's a huge number of people who work at an airport and it's not easy to go back."

Airport management are meeting political leaders and unions later on Tuesday and a statement on the talks is expected from Mr Burnham on Wednesday.

Andy Prendergast, the national secretary for the GMB union which represents aviation staff, told BBC Radio 5 Live the aviation industry was "one that's had a torrid couple of years".

"Over that period they've lost huge numbers of staff via redundancy and people getting other jobs," he said.

"Quite simply there isn't the capacity to look after all the travellers."

John O'Neill, North West Regional Industrial Officer for Unite, said after mass redundancies due to Covid, some workers have found alternative jobs with similar wages and may not be willing to return to work at the airport doing unsocial hours for similar rates of pay.

"Summer is going to be far worse than this. It is the time to get everything in place otherwise summer is going to very difficult," he said.

Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Wasim Chaudhry said: "As a member of the local resilience forum, Greater Manchester Police supports partner agencies in producing plans to prevent and mitigate the impact of incidents on our local communities."

One airport worker also said he had quit his job over the "dangerous" situation at the airport.

Ray Ellis said: "It just felt so dangerous and so wrong in my soul.

"I couldn't do it any longer so I put my notice in.

"On the final day I didn't know if I was working a full shift or a half shift, I got no feedback, so I just walked off the job."

There were still problems on Tuesday morning, with one Twitter user describing only two security scanners in operation and "many panicking passengers" and another saying they could not get into the airport.

However, another passenger said they got through security quickly and said departures staff "were great too".

Manchester Airport has previously admitted passengers' experiences have fallen "below the standard we aim to provide".

A spokesperson said: "We are doing all we can to recruit the staff we need to meet this demand, but this is taking time due to the lengthy vetting and training processes involved.

"Our whole industry is facing staff shortages and recruitment challenges at present, after the most damaging two years in its history."

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