Originally Posted by
TOM100
Agree, Wales needs an airport. However it also needs to provide other essential services for residents and not an airport at any cost.
it also needs a focussed airport that is well run, on top of costs (especially when revenue falls of a cliff) and attempting to take some control of its own destiny (not blaming external factors).
if they can’t do this, can’t formulate a strategy and right size with the current climate then Wales will just have to be served from BRS, BHX and MAN.
if we are to subsidise heavily a £20m (small) business then I expect them to right size, slim down their senior management and other staff costs (minimal to reflect the size of the business) and reduce the burden to minimal on the Welsh taxpayer. I don’t believe a business of this size needs a Chairman, CEO, FD, Director of Ops, Head of HR, Head of Safety, Head of Commercial (!). to start with. This kind of structure might suit BRS and BHX but not this little airport on a £20m t/o. Last time I looked BRS t/o was around £85m and BHX £145m !
I would say that the majority of the roles are key roles that are required in any business. If the Airport can be run with a senior management team like this, but doesn't have the tier of middle management and unnecessary "manager" roles that many businesses have, including the likes of BRS and BHX, then i don't see what the problem is.
Without seeing an exact structure from top to bottom, we can't really make judgement on the setup. Also having a Management team that specify in the field they operate under brings better experience and knowledge. Aside from maybe Chairperson & MD/CEO, none of those roles are really linked in any way to be able to combine them.
Also don't forget we are still really in the unknown & unpredictable territory. Many services are in house and there have already been redundancies/reduced hours. Personally I really don't think they are sitting back, drinking coffee and watching tax payers money take off from an empty runway like some people on here make out. They have already diversified in many ways before Covid19 hit, this was ever since the WG bought it. There's only so much noticeable diversification that can be done when things keep going wrong like they are.