Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Friday, 24 July 2020
Special Committee on Covid-19 Response
Covid-19: Impact on International Travel
Mr. Neil McGowan:
I think if we had a vaccine in the morning, the airports and the airlines could get back up to running at full capacity in a very short period, but that is dependent on employees still being maintained in the airlines, airports and third-party handlers. There is a massive amount of employment in companies like Swissport International Limited, Menzies Aviation and Dnata that provide services to airports, and unless something dramatic happens and the State intervenes, we are looking at a tsunami of redundancies. The airlines, airports and third-party handlers will not have the capability to ramp up in the event a vaccine is developed and the demand for travel returns.