The new owner of Gatwick airport has told 120 staff they could lose their jobs as the company seeks to restructure.
Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which bought Gatwick from BAA last December after the competition watchdog ordered a break-up of BAA’s monopoly, has told staff at its planning and commercial departments that they effectively have to reapply for their jobs and the firm has entered consultation with the workers over job losses and changes.
But Stewart Wingate, the airport’s chief executive, said that the actual number of redundancies would be much lower and the restructuring was aimed at improving the running of the airport, the Times reported.
Wingate said: “We announced this restructuring so people have an opportunity to tell us what could improve in their jobs and also to give us the opportunity to bring in new and fresh people. We want to make sure we have people that agree with us and want to move forward with us.”
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GIP has brought in what it calls “management black-belts” to apply industrial processes to improving the airport’s operations.
The shake-up comes as part of a wider revamp of Gatwick. GIP has set out plans to overhaul Gatwick so that it can compete with BAA’s Heathrow and Stansted airports.
