Working at Luton as I do it is a fact of life that mass immigration has held wages down. Why pay more than the minimum wage and put people on zero hour contracts when there are constant new arrivals from ever poorer European nations who think earning £7.50 an hour is like winning the lottery. I work with many of these people who live 10 to a house and who get a wage boost by claiming every entitlement they qualify for.
I would say at least 50% of Luton’s passengers and nearly all of its growth has come from Eastern Europe. I don’t blame anyone for wanting a better life but it is a fact that companies bid for contracts based on offering the lowest pay and zero hour contracts in the knowledge that they will always find staff who would work for £3 an hour if there was no minimum wage.
I can remember when the minimum wage was introduced and industry said it would cost a million jobs. In fact it cost no jobs, the same way as we would survive outside the EU and with less migrants to rely on wages would have to increase if companies wanted to recruit at Luton.
If this means less passengers passing through Luton then so what. People who post to these airport threads on pprune are fixated with passenger growth and nothing else and can't see or don't want to see the bigger picture.