Brenda Owen reports from Gatwick Airport on the deepening crisis facing the airline industry.

An air of uncertainty hangs over Gatwick Airport as workers fear their jobs could go in a worldwide collapse of the airline industry.

Virgin Atlantic, whose head office is in Manor Royal, Crawley, has already announced it is to axe 1,200 jobs from its worldwide workforce of 9,000.

The job losses come amid fears that the terrorist attacks in America will have a devastating effect on air travel.

British Airways, which decided before the atrocities to axe 1,800 jobs by the end of March 2002, is to make a further announcement later this week on cost-cutting measures which could involve further job losses.

Immediately after the bombings, BA introduced a recruitment freeze and strict controls on non-essential expenditure in order to preserve cash.

The airline said in a statement: "We are carefully evaluating the impact of the US tragedy and planning additional measures we will need to take in the interests of our shareholders, customers and employees."

Continental Airlines, which operates five flights a day to America from Gatwick, is temporarily suspending its daily service to Cleveland, Ohio.

Spokesman Nick Britton said the last flight to Ohio would leave Gatwick on October 1.

The airline is shedding 12,000 jobs worldwide but no decisions have been made yet on how this will affect its 297 staff working from Gatwick and Horley.

Many firms at Gatwick have forbidden employees to speak to anyone about the possible effects the slump could have on the airport.

Bosses were refusing to speculate how job losses would affect the airport and service industries. Some said they did not want to alarm staff by making comments.

For Gatwick, the Virgin job losses come as a particularly sad blow as the airline holds a special place in the airport's history.

Virgin Atlantic was born in 1984, with the first flight from Gatwick to Newark, New Jersey, in June that year. The airline began services from Gatwick to Miami in Florida in April 1986 and took delivery of its second jumbo jet in June.

The airline's one-millionth transatlantic passenger took to the air in September 1987.

Founder Sir Richard Branson sold 49 per cent of Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines in December 1999, in a deal worth more than £600 million.

The airline made a pre-tax profit of £45.5 million in the 12 months to April this year, up from £40 million in 1999-2000. Virgin carried 4.4 million passengers in 2000-01, compared with 3.9 million in 1999-2000.

Now Virgin, like all other carriers, must weather the storm created by last week's events.

Ironically, at a time of grave concern about the future of the airline industry, the airport itself is busier than ever dealing with delayed passengers.

Shops and restaurants are thriving as hundreds of passengers wait to go through extended security checks.

Passengers have been told to arrive at the airport three hours before their flight, in order to allow these additional checks to be made.

At Garfunkel's in the South Terminal, manager Joe Lourenco said the restaurant was serving 11,000 customers a week. But he said he expected trade to become quieter as the holiday season ended.

He said the restaurant employed seasonal staff, so there would be no job losses.

At Books Etc, staff said the airport was particularly busy and the terrorist attack was not yet having an effect.

Supervisor Cathy Larkin said: "There is a high turnover of staff at Gatwick and I don't think the retail trade will be affected."

A Gatwick spokeswoman said; "It is too early to say what the full impact of last week's events will be."

At present, 100 airlines operate out of Gatwick, flying to 280 destinations.

Thirty million passengers a year currently pass through the airport. Before last week's atrocities the figure was expected to rise to 40 million by 2008.

Whether that number must now be revised downwards remains to be seen.