Airbus blames Covid as 1,700 UK jobs set to go
AEROSPACE giant Airbus is planning to cut 1,700 jobs in the UK as a result of the coronavirus crisis, the company has announced.
The news is a huge blow to the planemaker’s site at Broughton in Flintshire, where wings are manufactured
The job cuts will fall on the business’ commercial aircraft side with 6,080 staff at the wing assembly site at Broughton and about 3,000 workers at Filton, near Bristol, particularly vulnerable. Five hundred workers with agency Guidant already face redundancy. Airbus announced that it is cutting 15,000 jobs across its global operations, which employ a total of 134,000.
A company statement said last
night: “Airbus has announced plans to adapt its global workforce and resize its commercial aircraft activity in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
“This adaptation is expected to result in a reduction of around 15,000 positions no later than summer 2021.
“The information and consultation process with social partners has begun with a view to reaching agreements for implementation starting in autumn 2020.”
Airbus said commercial aircraft business activity has dropped by almost 40% in recent months as the industry faces an “unprecedented” crisis.
Airbus is also planning to cut 5,000 jobs in France, 5,100 in Germany, 900 in Spain and 1,300 positions at its other worldwide sites.
The statement continued: “Airbus is grateful for the government support that has enabled the company to limit these necessary adaptation measures.
“However 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 to reflect the post Covid-19 industry outlook.”
France has announced a €15bn (£13.3bn) aid package for its aerospace industry with the UK Government urged to offer similar support to the sector in Britain.
Chief executive Guillaume Faury said: “Airbus is facing the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced.
“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 farreaching 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 knowhow 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.”
Paul Everitt, chief executive of trade body ADS said: “This is undoubtedly the toughest period the global aerospace industry has ever faced.
“Being the largest commercial aircraft company in the UK, Airbus is central to our aerospace industry and has a close relationship with its highlyintegrated UK supply chain.
This difficult news will be unsettling for their employees and those working as part of the supply chain.
“The aerospace industry contributes to the UK’s prosperity and international competitiveness and our highly-skilled workforce is primed to play a huge role in creating the sustainable aircraft of the future. We have already seen tens of thousands of jobs across the aviation and aerospace sectors put at risk as a result of this crisis.
“Government action to support the wider economy has been greatly appreciated across the aerospace industry, but further measures are urgently required to support a strong recovery in our sector. This should include increased investment in UK innovation, help to recapitalise the supply chain and using public procurement to support high-value UK manufacturing.”
No immediate breakdown of job losses in Broughton and Filton will be given.
While compulsory actions cannot be ruled out at this stage, Airbus will work with its social partners to limit the
impact of this plan by relying on all available social measures, including voluntary departures, early retirement, and long term partial unemployment schemes where appropriate.
Airbus Defence and Space employ 450 in Newport, 1,000 in Portsmouth and 1,200 in Stevenage but these sites should not be impacted.
But the aerospace sector in Wales has already been hit this week with proposed job losses at Magellan Aerospace’s Wrexham site of 240 and Broughtonbased Metal Improvement Company (MIC) of 60.
Peter Hughes, union Unite Wales’ regional Ssecretary, said: “The significance of large-scale job losses at Airbus would have a devastating impact on the aerospace sector in Wales and on the wider Welsh economy. Unite has been calling for the UK Government to put a plan of support in place for the Aerospace sector for months. This support has been provided by France and Germany, will the UK Government now step up to the plate and do everything required to support UK aviation jobs?
“We are calling upon Airbus to hold their nerve and step back from implementing their plan. Everything must be done to engage with government to see if the necessary support can be provided to delay this decision until this crisis abates. Certainly further extension of the furlough scheme to the aerospace sector would be a medium term solution whilst it rebuilds and recovers.
“Unite will not accept any proposal that involves compulsory redundancy for our members. The workforce at Broughton is world class, and have shown time and again how they are able to adapt and evolve their working practices to maintain the sites position as a central cog in Airbus European operations. Unite is open to working constructively with Airbus to look at all options available in order to maintain the maximum number of jobs at Broughton. Everyone in Wales recognises how important Airbus can be to the economic recovery of Wales post-Covid-19. If the UK Government does not step in now to ensure the support is there for Airbus to get through this crisis, the consequences for Wales could be catastrophic.”
Jack Sargeant, Labour MS for Alyn and Deeside, called for “immediate financial support” for Airbus and the busineses in its supply chain.
He said: “This is incredibly devastating news. We all have friends and family working at Airbus. This community stands with them now more than ever.
“I have been telling the UK Government for weeks that they need to support this sector. They must now act to support everyone who works at Airbus.”