I would argue that Karen Smart is something of a scapegoat here. She only took the job at Manchester Airport in July 2020. By that time, the pandemic shutdown was well underway and the big decisions on how many staff should go had already been made. Manchester Airport's record of cutting costs to the max and skimping on investment in the day-to-day running of the airport have been a hallmark of the tenure of CHARLIE CORNISH, the invisible man when things go wrong. We have to rely on an anonymous spokesperson. Perhaps Karen is carrying the can for his poor decisions?
We know that Manchester Airport kept its 'new routes' team on furlough far too long, allowing competing airports to steal a march. Did the same policy apply to other MAG staff positions, including security? Those decisions come from the top. Was it Karen's call - or Charlie's? She wasn't in post to get rid of them all in the first place. And a brain-drain of experienced staff has been the price exacted. A false economy, as we see now.
In mitigation, we must recall that Rishi Sunak's long-promised "bespoke deal to help our aviation industry" never transpired in anything beyond token form. Much of the public anger against Boris actually relates to terrible decisions imposed by Sunak. In consequence, whilst sectors such as restaurants and hospitality received generous taxpayer support (cue Sunak photo-opps), our devastated airports got £272m between them - largely accounted for by generic schemes open to all employers. In contrast, German airports were supported to the tune of £2.1Bn - and their airlines did very nicely too. Our lot just cited climate dogma as an excuse for throwing our industry under the bus. And they offered only opaque messaging about when crazy covid testing, hokey-cokey quarantine rules and useless passenger locator forms would be axed. Impossible to plan without clarity on this.
But despite this, a good share of the blame must still rest with Charlie Cornish. He has a long record of skimping and under-investing going back to the good times ... long before anyone had heard of covid. His rap-sheet also includes presiding over the planned destruction of Manchester Airport's whole-plane cargo-handling capability (HIS policy to boost East Midlands and Stansted) - he should resign for that alone. He also resisted investing in T3 expansion to cope with known Ryanair growth plans - he preferred to see additional proposed based units turned away. That damages our region. And the shocking hangar-lettings debacle happened on his watch - it remains unresolved. Set against this, he presided over the TP investment, though he insisted that be 'value engineered' to the bone. General investment in T1 and T3 has been deferred or done as cheaply as possible. Wages are kept to an absolute minimum. Broken travellators go unrepaired / unreplaced indefinitely, no bus transfer alternative provided. This man will not be remembered fondly as a visionary in the mould of Sir Gil Thompson.
Karen Smart is the fall-girl. She didn't have long enough to recover a situation which she inherited. The real questions should be asked of SUNAK and CORNISH.