Falling passenger numbers have been blamed for job losses announced for City of Derry Airport (CoDA).
Roy Devine, airport chairperson, said nine posts had been identified as “surplus to requirements.”
Five of the posts are go to through natural wastage while the remainder are to be offered voluntary redundancy.
Mr Devine blamed falling passenger numbers.
Alan Law, union representative from NIPSA, said the announcement was a devastating blow airport staff.
“The job losses equate to 10 percent of the work force. The mood is very gloomy at the moment,” he said.
Roy Devine, chairperson City of Derry Airport.
A spokesperson for the airport said a number of posts had already been reduced by not replacing staff that had left in recent months, but more reductions were still needed in managerial posts.
They said every effort would be made to avoid compulsory redundancies.
In January this year, Damien Tierney, director of the airport – which has a staff of 100 with up to 60 more employed by outside contractors – said a reduction in jobs could not be ruled out.
Mr Tierney said he expected passenger numbers at the Eglinton airport to drop by between 10 and 15 per cent in the next 12 months.
He added if there were job cuts he hoped they would be through “natural wastage.”
Mr Tierney was speaking after making a report on the airport’s performance to Derry City Council which owns the airport.
Mr Tierney told members of the council’s Regional Services Committee that 2014-2015 would “probably be our most difficult.”
The airport is set for a drop in flight numbers in the next year with Ryanair set reduce the number of flights by up 18 a week.
CIty of Derry Airport director Damien Tierney.
Air passenger duty charges, the economic downturn and competition with airports in the Republic of Ireland were listed as reasons for the proposed reduction.
Councillors were told while there was a slight increase during the BBC Radio 1’s “One Big Weekend” and the All-Ireland Fleadh, there was no increase in passenger numbers during 2013.
In February, travel firm Falcon Holidays announced it was to stopping flights from City of Derry to the Canary Island of Lanzarote.
The Lanzarote flights – which were due to operate once a week from the start of May to the end of September – were introduced to the Derry airport last summer when Falcon cancelled flights to Salou.
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