The Vancouver International Airport Authority has begun issuing layoff notices.
In its latest statement, the airport authority said its first round of voluntary layoffs, announced on April 29 , had wrapped up and that it would begin its next round of cost-cutting measures this week, with layoff notices being issued on Monday morning.
“Our current workforce is sized to operate a 26 million passenger airport, and that is simply no longer sustainable,” the airport authority said in a statement.
“At YVR, we now expect to serve between eight and 15 million passengers per year for the next three years, and we are reorganizing our workforce to align with current and forecasted operational requirements.”
The layoffs will affect both management and union-protected employees. The authority expects to layoff about a quarter of its nearly 550-strong workforce in response to a dramatic drop in demand for travel, in light of COVID-19 and border restrictions.
The workforce reduction is specific to the employees who work under the community-based, not-for-profit YVR Airport Authority in departments including airport operations, finance, engineering, human resources, and administration. It does not apply to the 26,000 workers on the airport property that are employed by hundreds of other employers, though those employers are also facing impacts of their own.
“We are confident the steps being taken today will ensure we have the appropriate team in place to operate YVR now and into the future as we continue to serve our local community, industry and British Columbians,” the statement read.
Monday’s statement also indicates a lower expected passenger total than what had previously been forecast by YVR CEO Craig Richmond.
In late March, Richmond had said the airport was expecting 13 to 15 million passengers in 2020, a 40- to 50- per-cent decline from last year’s 26.4 million passengers. Monday’s statement forecast passenger totals as low as even eight million, less than a third of what the airport saw in 2019.
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