Crisis in the airline industry : Airbus will cut jobs

If it is too early to know how many positions are being considered, the aircraft manufacturer said that it "will continue to take all necessary measures" to save the company.

Airbus is preparing a restructuring plan that will include job cuts, the number of which is not determined at this stage, to deal with the drop in production caused by the crisis in air transport, a-t-on learned Thursday from several sources. Its executive chairman Guillaume Faury has raised the prospect of such a plan in an interview Thursday with many leaders of the group, said a source within the european aerospace giant.

He argued it was "too early" to have a clear idea of the extent of the measures to be taken, and that the number of job losses envisaged was not determined, according to this source. The company merely disclosed that he "will continue to take all the necessary measures to ensure the future of Airbus in cooperation with its social partners".

"It is quite premature to talk about redundancies"

The european airplane manufacturer announced at the beginning of April to the reduction in its production of commercial aircraft by about a third to adapt to demand in a downturn. Nailed to the ground by the outbreak of coronavirus, the airlines are on their knees financially and the risk for Airbus is that they cancel orders for new aircraft. The european company employed 134 900 employees at the end of December, of which 48 000 in France, 46 000 in Germany, 13 500 in the Uk, and 12 700 in Spain.

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"We expect that staff reductions but it is much too early to give any figures, today there are still a lot of unknowns," said a source association, for which "it is quite premature to talk about redundancies". Discussions of workforce reductions should take place "instead of at the beginning of June", she added, referring to a "good" dialogue with the management.

"The survival of Airbus is at stake"

In France, Airbus has put thousands of employees on partial unemployment since mid-April, a measure that should soon be renewed. "The first measure of part-time unemployment goes up until may 17, and the second must go up to the 30 September next", according to Xavier Petrachi, a delegate CGT at Airbus, which says it does not expect a backup plan of employment prior to this.

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In a letter to employees at the end of April, Guillaume Faury warned: "the survivability of Airbus is at stake if we do not act now," he wrote. Beyond the production decreases already recorded and measures of partial unemployment, "we may need to also provide measures of more large-scale because of the magnitude of this crisis and its probable duration," he added.