Airbus Announces Plans to Cut 15,000 Jobs
Despite a recent government bailout, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury says that the company is “facing the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced”.
On Tuesday, French plane maker Airbus announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs from its global workforce.
With around 134,000 employees worldwide, the job cuts will affect 11% of Airbus’s workforce. The bulk of the cuts will fall on France and Germany, which will see 5,000 and 5,100 lost positions respectively. A further 1,700 will be lost in the UK, 900 in Spain and 1,300 at Airbus’s overseas sites.
In a statement, the company said that the cuts were necessary for “safeguarding the company’s future” amid the COVID-19 crisis, which chief executive Guillaume Faury also referred to as “the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced”.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen demand for air travel slump globally, impacting many airlines. Several airlines have already been driven into administration by the losses incurred, including Flybe and Virgin Australia.
Airbus’s layoffs come in the wake of a €15 billion bailout package earlier this month, for which Faury thanked the French government. “We thank our governmental partners as they help us preserve our expertise and know-how as much as possible and have played an important role in limiting the social impact of this crisis in our industry,” he said.
On 9 June, IATA released a financial outlook report indicating that the global air travel industry will lose around $84 billion in 2020, with revenue halving to $419 billion.
