Flybe, job losses & access to/from our Constituency

St Austell & Newquay Labour Party Press Release

Following the announcement that Flybe has gone into receivership, blaming the coronavirus for making a difficult situation worse, the St Austell and Newquay Labour Party calls on the Government to take urgent action to restore the routes and address Cornwall’s poor connectivity by rail, land and air.

The loss of Flybe from the SW and in particular for us from Cornwall airport Newquay is a devastating loss of jobs for local people and for connectivity for Cornwall. The sudden closure of Flybe has caused 2,500 job losses in all, and without warning for staff.

The impact on the local economy, the jobs, workers and their families of the loss of economy from those flights is going to hurt our area, without question.

New providers are likely to be found for the protected Public Service Obligation flight from Newquay to Heathrow/Gatwick by Cornwall Council and the Department of Transport.

But this will not compensate for the loss of other flights which are not protected to Manchester, Leeds and Amsterdam among many other destinations, which provided such a boost to our local communities.

The loss of this airline will be keenly felt by Cornwall in particular as our rail services are slower than many other parts of the country and we are restricted to one rail line out of Cornwall, which itself can be closed due to high tides at Dawlish.

Plymouth airport closed 9 years ago. We are very poorly served already and that has just got a lot worse.

Whilst we should be trying to reduce the amount we fly to lower our carbon impact we are without viable alternatives here in the South West.

For Steve Double to blame the EU laws for failure to save Flybe from administration is beyond bizarre. This is another example of how we live in the era where truth plays no part in reality. The Government has not learnt the lessons of the collapse of Monarch and Thomas Cook. The Government promised to ensure regional investment and connectivity to support us in the post Brexit economy – but have yet again failed to protect our Region from the damage.

Labour will be working with local Unions to see what support we can offer to local people who have lost their jobs at very short notice and who are frightened about the future in such a period of uncertainty.

Felicity Owen