Covid: Cardiff Airport business down 93%, says chief executive

Business at Cardiff Airport is down 93% on this time last year due to Covid-19, its boss has told Welsh MPs.

Interim chief executive Spencer Birns said the airport, owned by the Welsh Government, has been "massively impacted" by the pandemic.

He said the UK government's furlough scheme had been "very helpful to us".

But Mr Birns said it appeared "quite challenging" for the airport to benefit much from its replacement, the Job Support Scheme, from 1 November.

He told the Welsh Affairs Committee: "We're massively impacted by the Covid crisis.

"To put it into context, we're down 93% [compared with where we were] this time last year."

Mr Birns said the furlough scheme, or Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, "has been very helpful to us on the current structure".

Workers on furlough have 80% of their wages paid by the government, although that level of support has reduced as the scheme nears its end.

With the much less generous Job Support Scheme the government helps top up wages, with companies asked to pay 55% of the bill, provided employees work at least a third of their hours.

"The new job retention scheme that was announced last week, we are yet to get to the full details, we haven't seen that properly yet," Mr Birns said.

"But, on the initial look at that, it's going to be quite challenging for us to actually utilise that very well.

"It's probably more akin to dealing with the hospitality sector... but we are having a good look at it."

Aviation has been one of the sectors hardest hit by coronavirus, with warnings hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk across the globe.