COVID-19: INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTOPHE DE FIGUEIREDO, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SWISSPORT MOROCCO

“We need help to preserve jobs and our activities”

What is Swissport’s situation in the context of this health crisis?

Today, our activities have come to a complete standstill. However, it is important to retain jobs, to support our employees and for Swissport. The day activity resumes, our competent and qualified resources will be ready. I would like to congratulate all our teams on their work. They showed commitment, courage and professionalism at the fifteen airports in the Kingdom before they closed. Well done to them!

How exactly are you preserving jobs?

For the time being, we have been fortunate enough to be able to put the majority of our staff on paid leave, but this will not last. For the other employees, on Anapec contracts, we are doing everything we can to ensure they receive the flat-rate allowance for partial unemployment.

We have also asked the government for help, via the Ministry of Handicrafts, Tourism, Air Transport and Social Economy, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, to waive our licence fees or extend the licence, but also to suspend social security contributions and speed up VAT refunds. These are steps we have taken in many countries.

We really hope that this crisis does not last and that we obtain support, because otherwise all our jobs and the know-how that goes with them are at risk. This would obviously threaten the resumption of activities after the crisis.

In your opinion, what is the positive side of this crisis?

There are several, I think. We are living through a situation that even the greatest science-fiction films had not imagined. What matters today is to follow the Government’s instructions, and what is certain is that, since the beginning, social bonds seem to be growing stronger. Solidarity initiatives are emerging. We hold our future in our hands. From a business point of view, in our highly fragmented market, I think there will be a redistribution of roles and that some companies will come out on top. When the crisis is over, I hope that a sense of euphoria will take hold of people who have been in lockdown, which will have beneficial consequences for the airline sector and tourism.