PARIS — European aircraft manufacturer Airbus said Tuesday it plans to eliminate 15,000 jobs over the next year, mostly in Europe, as it struggles with the financial hit of the coronavirus pandemic.
“With air traffic not expected to recover to pre-COVID levels before 2023 and potentially as late as 2025, Airbus now needs to take additional measures,” the company said in a statement.
It plans to shed 5,000 workers in France, 5,100 in Germany, 1,700 in Britain, 900 in Spain and 1,300 others at Airbus facilities elsewhere.
Airbus said it wants to start making the cuts within months, from this autumn. It will aim for voluntary departures and early retirements, but also said that compulsory job losses can't be ruled out.
“Airbus is facing the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced,” the company's CEO, Guillaume Faury, said in the statement. “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.”
The Associated Press
