NEARLY 400 jobs are set to be cut by one of the region's major employers.

The Manchester Airport Group has begun a consultation on plans to make hundreds of staff redundant at three of its airports, including Stansted.

Bosses say up to 376 job losses are being proposed at Stansted due to the major downturn in air traffic sparked by the coronavirus crisis.

Demand at MAG airports has reduced by 90 per cent since March and with the Government's furlough scheme due to end at in three weeks time, bosses say they are having to take drastic action to "secure" the long-term future of the business

MAG chief exec Charlie Cornish said: "“By now, we would have hoped to see a strong and sustained recovery in demand. Unfortunately, the resurgence of the virus across Europe and the reintroduction of travel restrictions have meant this has not happened.

“With uncertainty about when a vaccine will be widely available, we need to be realistic about when demand is likely to recover.

“The end of the Job Retention Scheme means that we have to consider the number of roles that we can sustain at our airports.

“We will be discussing these issues with our trade unions, and consulting them fully on a range of options for reducing the size and overall cost of our workforce. We want to work with them to make sure we minimise the impact on our people as much as we can.

“I want to thank everyone across MAG for the dedication they have shown through the toughest summer our industry has ever seen. MAG and other UK airports remain fundamentally strong businesses that will play an important role in driving the country’s recovery, but the specific and short term pressures of the pandemic are exceptional and particularly challenging for our sector.

“We are proud of our long-standing role in supporting communities around our airports and underpinning the employment of more than 130,000 people across the UK. We will continue to work to protect as many jobs as possible, maintain dialogue with our trade unions, and continue to make the case to Government for the direct support that UK aviation needs.”

MAG says the aviation industry is unlikely to recover from the crisis until at least 2023 and any prospects of a recovery this year have been dashed by the resurgence of coronavirus in Europe.

Back in March, staff at MAG airports were asked to take a 10 per cent pay cut to reduce costs.

Major improvement work has also been paused.

The redundancy proposals put forward could also result in the loss of 465 jobs at Manchester Airport, and 51 roles at East Midlands Airport.