Sydney Airport To Shed 40% Of Jobs To Compete

Illawarra Mercury

Thursday July 10, 2003

ABOUT 40 per cent of the full-time jobs at Sydney Airport will disappear in the next 12 months in a restructure aimed at lifting competitiveness.

Sydney Airport Corporation Ltd (SACL) chief executive Max Moore-Wilton said 160 of the company's 400 full-time staff would be shed by June next year, through a combination of forced and voluntary redundancies worth about $6.5 million.

``Non-core functions will be contracted out, greater operational efficiency will be required of retained core functions, and intellectual capital will be fostered," Mr Moore-Wilton said.

``We have to operate to private sector norms and to benchmark ourselves against our competitor airports in the region."

The difficult aviation market and the recent SARS outbreak also gave impetus to the restructure.