Outrage over huge pay rises for Manchester Airports Group bosses

theguardian.com:

Trade unions have condemned the owner of struggling Manchester airport for inflating bosses’ pay by almost a quarter in the first year of the pandemic even as the wages for staff were cut and hundreds of workers were let go.

The north-west hub has been hit by weeks of travel disruption and hours-long queues for passengers, leading to the unscheduled departure of the airport’s managing director Karen Smart, who stepped down on Tuesday.

However, the annual report of Manchester Airports Group, which also owns London Stansted and East Midlands airports, showed pay for the group’s managers rose by £2.8m to £12.2m in the year ending 31 March 2021 – the first 12 months of Covid when air travel slumped.

This represents an increase of 23% compared with a year earlier. Meanwhile, the highest-paid director at MAG – understood to be its chief executive, Charlie Cornish – was awarded an extra £500,000, a rise of 25% taking his total renumeration to £2.5m.

Aviation was one of the sectors hardest hit by Covid, and MAG said passenger numbers across its three airports fell by as much as 90% between April and August 2020.

Since the lifting of almost all coronavirus travel restrictions this year passenger numbers have begun to rebound, and last weekend the start of the Easter break was marred by waits of up to eight hours asairports and airlines across the country struggled to cope with staff shortages caused by Covid infections and layoffs. However, Manchester appears to have been less prepared than most rival airports for the reopening of travel, having suffered problems for a few weeks.

In a fight to cut costs during Covid, MAG embarked on a programme of mass redundancies, and held discussions with unions over its plans to cut 900 jobs.

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