The group, comprising local and national politicians, will this week lobby government to further recognise the impact of the country’s travel restrictions on the aviation sector and those workers whose livelihoods depend on an operational aviation industry.
Conservative MP for Crawley, Henry Smith, whose constituency is home to Gatwick, and Labour leader of Hounslow Council, Steve Curran, whose local authority area covers Heathrow, on Sunday (22 November) issued a plea for an urgent "aviation communities fund", citing their experiences working with communities hit by the downturn in air travel.
In a piece written for The Guardian, Smith and Curran said more than 730,000 jobs reliant on Britain’s international and regional airports were "at risk from a prolonged downturn in air traffic".
They also stressed the communities serving Gatwick and Heathrow had "the awful distinction of heading the national league table for numbers of furloughed and unemployed", and warned that with around 40% of the two areas’ local workforces supported by the state by the end of the summer, the situation was "likely to worsen".
An "Aviation Communities Summit" will be held on Tuesday (24 November) featuring representatives of both the Gatwick and Heathrow catchments, as well as other areas around UK airports affected by the current Covid climate, to assess the economic and social harm of the ongoing coronavirus impact on airports, The Guardian further reports.
"In Hounslow, next to Heathrow, and Crawley near Gatwick, 40% of our workforces were being supported by the state at the end of the summer," said Smith and Curran. "This number is likely to worsen.
"It is similar for parts of Birmingham, Essex, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Teesside, Newcastle and Glasgow and the other districts where concentrations of airport workers live."
The pair added that while much attention had been given to the plight or airline staff and crew, and the staff of retail brands operating at airports, the greatest impact was being felt by ancillary staff and support workers, including cleaners, attendants, drivers and mechanics.
