Belfast International Airport is about to get a serious refresh, with one family right at the centre of it.
Edna Armstrong is Head of Bid Management at the Mount Charles Group, Northern Ireland’s largest independent catering, cleaning, events and facilities management company. Her daughter Megan is General Manager of the Northern Quarter at the airport. Younger daughter Abby is a supervisor there too. They live together outside Belfast; they work for the same company and – perhaps most impressively – they still choose to go on holiday together.
Edna confirmed that only one member of the household has escaped the family roster. “He works in the car parts distribution sector,” she said of husband Trevor. “Three of us working for the same company is probably enough.”
Mount Charles has invested £1 million in a major revamp of its food and beverage offering at Belfast International Airport, including redesigning and upgrading its Northern Quarter operation. The space will be transformed from a traditional food court model into a single high-end restaurant and bar, with a seating capacity of 180, complemented by a new coffee dock in collaboration with Bewley’s.
The expansion will bring jobs too. Mount Charles currently employs 40 people through the Northern Quarter and plans to double staffing to 80 when the new proposition launches by Spring 2026.
Edna joined Mount Charles in July 2020 and is based at the company’s Ormeau Road headquarters. Prior to that, she was Head of Bid Management for an international company. Her role focuses on winning contracts – including, crucially, the bid that secured Mount Charles’ Belfast International Airport work.
“I was involved in the rebid for the retail outlet,” she said.“It was probably the first opportunity I’ve had to work with Megan closely in a work capacity and the fact that we were successful was a brilliant result.”
It was a full-circle moment for the Armstrongs: Edna helped win the contract; Megan is now driving the refurbishment; Abby is part of the team that will run the operation day-to-day.
It was Edna who first encouraged her daughters to consider roles at the Group. “Mount Charles was a breath of fresh air when I joined,” she said. “When I heard there were jobs going, I instantly thought my daughters would be a perfect fit. They sent in CVs and the rest is history.”
Megan has worked for Mount Charles for four years and is now leading the biggest change the Northern Quarter has seen. “I’m on site and heavily involved in the refurbishment – everything from staffing to marketing and the actual build itself,” she said. “My primary role is about how it’s going to operate and getting staff.”
Working alongside her sister is nothing new; the pair have been sharing workplaces since they were teenagers. “Abby and I have worked together many times,” the marketing graduate said. “One of our first jobs was in a restaurant here, then we both worked in the same cafe at university in Liverpool and then again when we came home.”
It was Megan who suggested Abby join the airport team. “It’s a lovely environment and it’s very different from traditional hospitality,” she said. “There’s something exciting about an airport and I knew Abby would be a brilliant fit for my team.”
Abby, a criminology and sociology graduate, has worked for Mount Charles for almost three years and is a supervisor at the Northern Quarter. Her role is practical, hands-on and people-focused, involving organising staff and keeping standards consistent. “I’m very hands-on – I do the day-to-day serving and managing staff and I make sure the units are clean and tidy,” she said.
She acknowledges the realities of working with a sister – particularly one who is also your general manager – but says it works because they know each other inside out. “I’ve been used to working with Megan since I was 16,” she said. “It can be challenging because sisters are going to argue at some stage, but it never lasts long.’
Edna says the family relationship never replaces the professional one – but it does make support easier to find when the pressure’s on.
“Work colleagues are different from family,” she said. “If you’re having a particularly difficult day, we find that we support each other.”
And when work ends, the Armstrongs make a point of taking at least one annual trip away together. “We go away at least once a year as a family unit,” Edna said. “This year, we went to Dublin to watch Ireland play Italy in the Six Nations.”
For Mount Charles, the Armstrongs exemplify how the company sees itself: as a family business that actually shows up in real life.
For the Armstrongs, it’s both a statement of commitment and a practical reality – one that currently involves an airport refurbishment, a major staffing expansion and two sisters on the same rota.
And, as Edna said: “The fact that the three of us work for the same company says everything about how we feel about our employer and each other.”