Northern Ireland

Emotional special meeting as Belfast councillors hear Flybe workers fears

During a special meeting of Belfast City Council on Monday evening, around one hundred Flybe workers and their children packed the public gallery at City Hall.. PIcture Mal McCann.
During a special meeting of Belfast City Council on Monday evening, around one hundred Flybe workers and their children packed the public gallery at City Hall.. PIcture Mal McCann. During a special meeting of Belfast City Council on Monday evening, around one hundred Flybe workers and their children packed the public gallery at City Hall.. PIcture Mal McCann.

Belfast City Council has pledged support to Flybe workers as councillors learned around a thousand people could lose their jobs in Northern Ireland as a result of the collapse of the airline.

During a special meeting of Belfast City Council on Monday evening, around one hundred Flybe workers and their children packed the public gallery at City Hall.

During the meeting councillors heard that many more than the 250 Flybe jobs at City airport could be permanently lost without direct government intervention.

Lord Mayor, Sinn Fein Councillor Daniel Baker, who called the meeting, said to the speakers and the packed gallery: “I wish I did not have to call this meeting today. It is absolutely heartbreaking hearing your stories. I have no words that I can say other than you have my full support and I want to express my solidarity with all the staff and all the families.”

He forwarded the motion: “This council will conduct an urgent meeting consisting of the Minister for the Economy, trade unions, Belfast City Airport and the Belfast MP’s, coming together to discuss ways we can collectively work together to help the staff of Flybe, and mitigate the economic impact the Flybe collapse has on the local economy, to try and restore the vital air links to our city.”

George Brash, of Unite, told the chamber: “The collapse of Flybe has massive repercussions not just for the 250 workers based in Belfast City airport, who are still in shock, but also for another six to seven hundred that could potentially be directly affected throughout the supply chain. This could affect a thousand workers. The impact on the Northern Ireland economy is massive.

“What we are calling on as a trade union is that the airport comes back into a public service authority and we are asking councillors to lobby MLA’s and other local politicians to secure funding to allow that to happen.”

He added: “Whilst Logan Air and other airlines have come in to cherry pick these routes, the routes don’t secure jobs. What secures jobs is a base in the airport, if there’s no base there will be nowhere for these workers certainly.”

Chris Robb, Flybe pilot, gave an emotional speech, in which he was cheered on by the gallery, after he broke down while explaining to councillors Flybe flights carried organ donations for sick children.

He said: “This is still salvageable in some shape or form. Northern Ireland relies heavily on our service to connect it to the rest of the UK.”

He added: “Make no mistake about it, no airline but us is in a position currently to replace the eight flights daily to Manchester and Birmingham, the four flights to Leeds and East Midlands, the seven flights to London city and the five flights to Southampton.

“We don’t have a high speed railway, we don’t have a bridge over 25 miles of water, other lines are more leisure orientated and are currently winding back there operations due to the effects of Covid19. The smaller airlines will not be able to provide the service that we do as they do not have the resources in place to operate a 70 craft network.”

SDLP Councillor Brian Heading, suggested an amendment to the council motion, adding the urgent meeting also involve MLA’s representing all parties. He pointed to the gallery, stating: “We owe these people, and we should remember as a council we invest in the economy, and we need to have the transport infrastructure there in order to make this economy work.

“We talk about an all Ireland economy – well if one of the major cities on the island doesn’t have a regional airline servicing it, then how can we justify getting other people to do it.”

He added: “It is ridiculous that the owners of Flybe were allowed to do what they did, and in the way they did it. And then to try to blame it on the coronavirus. We know why the company collapsed – it was already signalled when the government had to step in earlier this year.”

Councillor Matthew Collins of People Before Profit said: “Ten years ago in December 2010, Flybe was reportedly floated on the public market for £215 million. Ten years later, it was sold for almost £2.2million – I’m no expert on the history of the company, but I would bet my bottom dollar during that process somebody made a hell of a lot of money.”

The council voted unanimously to carry the motion.