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After Vancouver airport had cut 25 per cent of its staff and Calgary airports had cut about one third of its staff strength, now Toronto’s Pearson Airport has announced it is cutting 500 Jobs due to limited travel demand amid COVID-19 Pandemic.
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which operates Pearson International Airport, said in a statement that it will not hire 200 positions currently open and will remove another 300 positions through layoffs and voluntary departures.
In 2019, Pearson handled over 50 million passengers, but this year the GTAA says that pandemic has resulted in significant declines in passengers and flight activity as a result of travel advisories and restrictions by governments, flight and route cancellations, and fleet groundings by air carriers.
As per GTAA and other industry experts, it may take up to 3 to 5 years before full normal flight activity returns to pre-COVID-19 levels.
In other cost cutting measures, the GTAA had already deferred $265 million in planned capital spending this year and action temporary cuts to salaries for the company’s management and board of directors.
Two of the important job cuts will come from the top level management of the GTAA’s executive team, with the departure of its Vice-President and Chief Strategy Officer, Kim Stangeby, along with Vice-President of Customer and Terminal Services Scott Collier.
“Our leadership team and board of directors have worked concertedly each month to navigate these turbulent times and have put our people first,” CEO Deborah Flint said in a release. “This reduction in force is a difficult but necessary step, and one that we take with great sadness.”
