Jobs bloodbath as virus claims 4,440 workers
BRITAIN’S aviation industry suffered one of its darkest days in history yesterday with almost 3,600 job losses announced in a single day.
On a grim day in which 840 jobs were lost on the high street, EasyJet unveiled drastic plans to lay off up to 1,900 staff in the UK – including 727 pilots.
The company is also abandoning its bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle airports.
In another devastating blow to the beleaguered industry, aerospace giant Airbus last night said it would cut 1,700 jobs at its engineering sites in Britain. The European plane-maker has two sites in the UK – in Broughton, North Wales, where aircraft wings are
‘Gravest crisis we’ve experienced’
made, and at Filton in Bristol where the wings are designed.
Bosses have warned the company is ‘bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed’, and last night Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury said the pandemic represented the ‘gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced’.
News of the job losses broke as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps once again delayed plans to unveil summer holiday ‘air bridges’, the replacement for Priti Patel’s controversial blanket quarantine scheme.
At EasyJet, bosses predicted demand for flights will not recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2023. The British Airline Pilots’ Association said it was ‘shocked’ at the scale of cuts at the company.
The latest round of job cuts adds to the misery sweeping travel, aviation and aerospace.
Plane-maker Boeing is cutting 16,000 jobs, while 12,000 staff face the axe at British Airways, 3,000 at Virgin Atlantic and 3,000 at Ryanair. Tour operator Tui has also warned up to 8,000 jobs will go at its business.
The announcement of job cuts at EasyJet and Airbus came as shirtmaker TM Lewin collapsed into administration, costing 600 jobs.
The firm, which has sold shirts from Mayfair’s Jermyn Street for 122 years, said it would close its 66 stores and move online following a collapse in sales of formal workwear.
Furniture chain Harveys also called in administrators yesterday, leading to the immediate loss of 240 jobs. A further 1,300 staff could be made redundant if a buyer for its stores and manufacturing sites is not found. Its sister company Bensons for Beds said it would shut up to 90 of its 240 stores after it too went into administration.
It came as a Bank of England official warned that as many as half the country’s 33 million-strong workforce were now unemployed, furloughed or on reduced hours.
As the Office for National Statistics revealed the economy contracted by 2.2 per cent in the first three months of the year – the joint fastest decline in 40 years – Bank chief economist Andy Haldane also warned that unemployment could hit 10 per cent.