Airbus has tonight confirmed that 15,000 jobs are at risk worldwide with the Toulouse based Aerospace giant and that up 1,700 of those jobs could be from its UK operation.
Airbus has been badly hit by the slow down in the aviation industry which has seen it having to halt production and deliveries.
The two main UK sites in Broughton, North Wales, and Filton, Bristol employ 6000 and 3000 people respectively and are likely to bear the brunt of the job cuts.
The sites at Newport, Stevenage and Portsmouth are not expected to see any cuts.
“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.”
Airbus has said it expects 40% lower for the next 18 months and that demand will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 20205.
The company is already consulting with unions to minimise job losses and says that while it would like to rule out compulsory job losses, they could not be ruled out.
The Planned Job Losses by Country
- 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
