Airport closure not acceptable

Airport closure not acceptable

The GSD notes with concern the news that the airfield will close later today due to staff issues. It is simply not acceptable that at a time when Gibraltar should be seeking to improve its economy, with flight connectivity playing a central part in this effort, that flights should experience cancellation in this way.

The shadow minister for Tourism Damon Bossino said: “Gibraltar simply cannot afford to cancel flights because of staff illness at the airport again. We have now had far too many incidents of this nature and this issue needs to be resolved once and for all. This latest development is particularly worrying when NATS announced as recently as July that it would be boosting airport personal to avoid further flight disruptions.”

It is also somewhat concerning that the Government was not aware of the underlying cause, citing ‘labour relations’ issues to then amend their statement referring to ‘staff illness’. The Government needs to be in close contact with the MOD, be fully informed of what is going on and apply the necessary pressure to ensure that there is no further repeat of this embarrassing episode because this is not the first time there have been issues in recent months.