THE FALLOUT from the collapse of British tour operator Thomas Cook will leave at least 70 Barbadians on the breadline come November 1.
The workers losing their jobs will be employees of Seawell Air Services Ltd, which will cease all operations at Grantley Adams International Airport on that date, leaving a little under half of the staff complement without jobs.
Seawell Air Services employed over 170 workers, and only a little over 100 will be retained when the new operators open for business next month.
The operations are being taken over by the Goddard Catering Group (GCG), a subsidiary of Goddard Enterprises Limited, which is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States.
“Our business has decreased significantly because of the Thomas Cook collapse,” ground handling division manager of GCG, Bruno Barrientos, told the NATION yesterday by telephone link-up from Fort Lauderdale.
“Thomas Cook was a very good customer of Seawell Air Services, and now they don’t exist anymore. There simply is no work for persons in some positions because of that. But, the majority of the staff will come on board. I cannot give an exact number because not all the offer papers have been given back to us, but we expect to bring back significantly more than half of the staff,” Barrientos said, while noting the new company was expecting a 15 to 20 per cent reduction in overall business revenue previously associated with Thomas Cook.
