By Ian McConnell
Business Editor
SCOTTISH aviation services group John Menzies said yesterday it was now recruiting at most UK airports and its global workforce was greater than 27,000 against a pre-pandemic peak of 30,000-plus, as it unveiled a major contract win in Mexico.
It declared: “Our workforce is continuing to grow as volumes recover towards pre-pandemic levels.”
The group announced that its Menzies Aviation business had “secured a significant contract win with Mexico’s flagship carrier and largest international airline, Aeromexico”, which includes ground services at 15 airports across the country.
It declared that the three-year contract “represents further delivery of Menzies’ clear growth strategy and builds on recent positive contract-win momentum in the Latin America region”. It follows recent contract wins with American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Wingo and Air Transat.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Up step Johnson and Frost to signal how much worse things might become
Menzies will deliver a full suite of ground services to Aeromexico, including passenger, ramp, and cleaning operations, for an expected 23,000 flights per annum at international airports including Los Cabos, Mérida, Del Bajío and Oaxaca.
Asked about the anticipated annual revenue from the contract, John Menzies said: “Exact revenue figures are commercially sensitive but this is a multi-million-dollar contract. This is a new and substantial three-year contract and represents further delivery on our strategy to expand our network in emerging aviation service markets where we expect stronger recovery in growth and margins.”
Noting the contract award had arisen from an outsourcing decision by Aeromexico, it added: “Following a very competitive process, we are taking over Aeromexico’s operation from their internal handler Aeromexico Servicios. It is significant that they have chosen to outsource these operations for 15 stations to Menzies.”
READ MORE: Taiwan flags climate lessons from Scottish cities, warns of dangers of COP26 ‘quarantine’
John Menzies noted it had not previously handled Aeromexico. It said that, following the contract award, it would be the largest provider of aviation services to the airline in Mexico.
It added: “We already have a significant presence in Mexico and, following this contract win, we will have operations at 29 airports across Mexico.”
Asked whether further contracts were anticipated in Latin America and elsewhere, the company said: “We are targeting a number of new opportunities in the region as part of our global growth strategy which aims to increase our presence in emerging markets. Our development pipeline is strong and we look forward to announcing further new contract wins as and when they are confirmed.”
READ MORE: Major Scottish investment fund ‘optimistic and enthused’ after its 1,072% return
John Menzies said its workforce numbers “are fluid”. However, it added: “We now have over 27,000 employees against a pre-pandemic peak of over 30,000. In the UK we no longer have staff on furlough and we are recruiting at most airports.”
The UK Government's coronavirus job retention scheme ended on September 30.
Philipp Joeinig, chairman and chief executive of John Menzies, said: “We’re delighted to announce our new partnership with Mexico’s flagship airline.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here