Airbus has announced plans to cut around 15,000 jobs from its global workforce, including 1,700 roles in the UK.
The aerospace giant has said resizing its commercial aircraft activity is in response to the coronavirus pandemic, describing it as 'the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced'.
The consultation process has begun with the implementation starting this autumn, with the reduction in staff set to be completed by next summer.
While the company says it's grateful for the government support, the commercial aircraft business activity has dropped by close to 40 percent in recent months, and air traffic is not expected to recover to pre-COVID levels before 2023.
Therefore, Airbus "now needs to take additional measures to reflect the post COVID-19 industry outlook."
The firm anticipates the need to adapt its global workforce by approximately:
- 5,000 positions in France
- 5,100 positions in Germany
- 900 positions in Spain
- 1,700 positions in the UK
- 1,300 positions at Airbus’ other worldwide sites
“Airbus is facing the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced,” said Airbus CEO, Guillaume Faury.
“The measures we have taken so far have enabled us to absorb the initial shock of this global pandemic.
"Now, we must ensure that we can sustain our enterprise and emerge from the crisis as a healthy, global aerospace leader, adjusting to the overwhelming challenges of our customers.
"To confront that reality, we must now adopt more far-reaching measures. Our management team and our Board of Directors are fully committed to limiting the social impact of this adaptation.
"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. The Airbus teams and their skills and competences will enable us to pursue our ambition to pioneer a sustainable future for aerospace.”
