European plane maker Airbus has told its 135,000 employees to brace for potentially deeper job cuts amid the Covid-19 crisis, as the company’s survival is at stake without immediate action.
CEO Guillaume Faury said in a letter to staff the company is “bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed” and that the recent drop of a third or more in production rates does not reflect the worst-case scenario and would be kept under review.
According to Faury, Airbus has begun implementing government-assisted furlough schemes starting with 3,000 workers in France, but may need “to plan for more far-reaching measures.” The CEO said “The survival of Airbus is in question if we don’t act now.”
Airbus is in active discussions with European governments about tapping schemes to assist struggling industries (including state-guaranteed loans), the sources said. The company has already expanded commercial credit lines with banks.
The aerospace giant said this month it would reduce narrow-body jet production by a third to 40 jets a month. It also issued targets for wide-body jets, with cuts of up to 42 percent compared with previously published rates.
