Unite is to seek an urgent meeting with ground handling company Servisair at Manchester airport following news that Ryanair is cutting routes.
The union says it is hoping to minimise the impact of the changes, which will see Ryanair switch or close nine of its 10 Manchester routes from October 1.
Ryanair claims Manchester airport refused to lower its charges to reflect the lower fares being paid by passengers in the recession. Ryanair said the move would result in the loss of 44 weekly Manchester flights, and up to 600 local jobs.
The routes affected include Barcelona (Girona), Bremen, Brussels (Charleroi), Cagliari, Dusseldorf (Weeze), Frankfurt (Hahn), Marseille, Milan (Bergamo) and Shannon.
Unite’s regional officer Lawrence Chapple-Gill said: “The extent of Ryanair’s route closures and changes is worse than expected.
“Unite is seeking an urgent meeting with Servisair and it will be working to minimise the impact of Ryanair’s decision on [our] members employed at the airport.”
A Manchester airport spokesperson said: “Not withstanding all of our investment in Manchester airport, including during the current recession, we don’t believe that charges as low as £3 per passenger are unreasonable. Clearly, Ryanair does and that’s regrettable.
“We’ve consistently cut our charges for the last 15 years, even when faced with increased costs such as security.
“Passengers will still be able to travel directly to the majority of the destinations affected by choosing other airlines”.
Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “Ryanair continues to lower fares to encourage travel, but with passengers paying lower fares, airports must lower their charges – particularly high-cost airports such as Manchester, Stansted and Dublin. Ryanair had offered new routes, traffic and growth to Manchester airport, but they prefer to preserve their high cost base than to grow.”
Passengers affected will be emailed directly by Ryanair and provided with a full refund or the alternative of flying to some destinations from airports in East Midlands, Leeds Bradford and Liverpool.