Airbus SE is meeting with European labor unions this week as it prepares to slash thousands of jobs and scale back its planemaking operation for a prolonged downturn, according to people familiar with the matter.
Faced with a slump that could last until 2025, Airbus may not be able to avoid mandatory job cuts, one of the people said. Staff reductions will stretch beyond the commercial aviation division hit hard by the coronavirus, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.
Airbus’s helicopter and defense units will also lose headcount, said one of the people.
The Toulouse, France-based planemaker has so far prioritized voluntary measures such as early retirement as it fine-tunes a plan to cut costs. It’s also exploring ideas like shorter working weeks to ease the impact on employees and minimize controversy after its home countries, France and Germany, committed billions to aid aviation. Those measures alone aren’t likely to generate the cash savings required for an extended period of lower demand, the person said.
The aircraft manufacturer has seen demand for its planes dry up along with global travel this year after the virus spread across the globe. Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury has been warning for weeks that urgent action is needed to stem cash outflows.
Faury told German newspaper Die Welt in an interview Monday that the company is braced for production and deliveries about 40% lower for the next two years and the solutions available to help mitigate the impact “will not be enough.”
Lower Output
The figure is consistent with targets first announced in April, and reflects the shortfall measured against pre-coronavirus plans to increase output levels through 2023.
In April, Airbus said it would reduce output of its mainstay A320 series narrow-body by one-third, with larger cutbacks on its wide-body A330 and A350 aircraft.
The company is meeting with unions this week, the people said. The impact on jobs will be worse than under the prior restructuring called Power8, when the company cut 10,000 posts, one of the people said.
Airbus’ unions will meet with the company on Tuesday and Wednesday after holding their own discussions Monday.
An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on the agenda of internal meetings.
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