Aerospace giant Airbus is to cut 1,700 jobs in the UK as the coronavirus pandemic causes ‘the gravest crisis’ the aviation industry has ever faced.
The company is cutting nearly 15,000 jobs across its global operations to stay afloat as the coronavirus crisis rocks the air travel industry.
In a statement released today, CEO Guillaume Faury said its future was at stake after the coronavirus pandemic rocked the air travel industry.
The news is a huge blow to its site at Broughton in north Wales, where wings are manufactured, and its other factory at Filton in Bristol.
It comes as EasyJet announced 4,500 UK jobs were at risk and as Bensons for Beds, Harveys and TM Lewin all threatened layoffs and said stores will close.
A statement said: ‘Airbus has announced plans to adapt its global workforce and resize its commercial aircraft activity in response to the Covid-19 crisis.’
It added that ‘this adaptation is expected to result in a reduction of around 15,000 positions no later than summer 2021’.
Aerospace giant Airbus is to cut 1,700 jobs in the UK as the coronavirus pandemic causes ‘the gravest crisis’ the aviation industry has ever faced (Airbus facility near Nantes, France)
The company is cutting nearly 15,000 jobs across its global operations to stay afloat as the coronavirus crisis rocks the air travel industry (pictured, Air France Airbus A380 aircraft)
The news is a huge blow to its site at Broughton in Wales, where wings are manufactured, and its other factory at Filton in Bristol (pictured, British Airways Airbus A380 airplanes)
Mr 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 far-reaching 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 know-how 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 ADS, said ‘Airbus is central to our aerospace industry and has a close relationship with its highly-integrated UK supply chain’.
Around 5,000 posts in France, 5,100 in Germany, 900 in Spain, 1,700 in the UK and 1,300 elsewhere will be cut (pictured, Air France A380 Airbus and airplanes)
In a statement released today, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury (left) said the company’s future was at stake after the coronavirus pandemic rocked the air travel industry (right, Philippe Mhun, Executive Vice-President Programmes and Services)
He called on ‘further measures’ from the Government ‘to support our a strong recovery in our sector’, adding: ‘This is undoubtedly the toughest period the global aerospace industry has ever faced’.
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.
No immediate breakdown of job losses in Broughton and Filton will be given.
Earlier today, budget airline EasyJet revealed up to 4,500 staff will lose their jobs, including 1,900 UK employees, and announced plans to close its bases at London’s Stansted and Southend airports, and at Newcastle.
Some 727 of its UK-based pilots are at risk of redundancy, equivalent to about one-third of its pilots in the country.
The airline announced last month it was reducing its workforce by a third, warning it needed to cut 4,500 jobs to stay competitive.
At the start of this month easyJet raised £419million of cash to help it see through the pandemic. It has also taken a £600million government loan.
The beleaguered Luton-based carrier becomes the latest domino to fall in the aviation industry, which has suffered massive losses in the wake of the pandemic.
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren (pictured at Gatwick on June 15) said the proposals were ‘difficult to put forward in what is an unprecedented and difficult time’
EasyJet aircraft pictured at London Southend Airport in Essex today
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) has accused EasyJet of ‘excessive over-reaction’ after the airline today revealed up to 4,500 staff will lose its jobs
EasyJet said the proposals are to close the bases in August to customers booked to fly from the airport over the summer ‘will not be affected as a result of this.’
BALPA union accused EasyJet of ‘excessive overreaction’ and urged the Government to step in to stop the aviation industry’s ‘death spiral of despair’.
The union tweeted today: ‘We are shocked at the size of potential pilot job losses in easyJet which equate to nearly 1-in-3 of easyJet pilots in the UK: 727 pilots.
‘easyJet paid £174million out to shareholders, got agreements to furlough staff to protect cash, got £600million from the Government, has boasted of having £2.4billion in liquidity, and ticket sales are going through the roof so fast they cannot get pilots back off furlough quickly enough.
‘So this seems an excessive over-reaction. It doesn’t add up. We are meeting easyJet today and we will be fighting to save every single job.
‘This is more evidence that aviation in the UK is caught in a death spiral of despair and individual airlines are flailing around without direction. Govt should step in, provide a strategy and back a moratorium on job losses’.
TM Lewin collapsed into administration today with 600 jobs axed.
The 122-year-old shirtmaker’s 66 shops, which also sell shoes, suits and ties, will disappear from the high street but its online platform will remain.
The firm blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the move to digital-only as it could not afford to pay rents after stores shut in March.
It is the latest retail victim of the crisis, following the owner of Britain’s biggest shopping centres Intu Properties which went into administration last week.
The 122-year-old shirtmaker’s 66 shops, which also sell shoes, suits and ties, will disappear from the UK high street but its online platform will remain (file photo)
The firm blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the move to digital-only as it could not afford to pay rents after stores shut in March (file photo)
A TM Lewin source told MailOnline an email was sent to staff 25 minutes before a Microsoft team meeting to tell them they were being made redundant.
The woman, who worked for the company, said the conference lasted four minutes with 110 staff on the call.
She said the meeting was held by the new owner of TM Lewin, Torque, with group transformation CEO James Doyan hosting it.
She added: ‘There was no chance for anyone to ask questions or have any say. We were told to mute ourselves and turn off our cameras for the meeting.’
Harveys became another casualty of the pandemic as the furniture chain fell into administration, with the immediate loss of 240 jobs.
All Harveys stores in the UK will continue to trade for now as administrators PwC look for a buyer for the business and its three manufacturing sites.
The company’s website says they are not taking any new orders, but claims that ‘existing orders will be delivered as communicated’.
Collapsed: All Harveys stores, around 20 and mostly in London, will continue to trade for now and existing customer orders will be honoured
Harveys website says they are no longer taking new orders but will honour existing orders
The chain, which is owned by private equity firm Alteri Investors, was already struggling even before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
‘A combination of structural issues and Covid means we are going to have to leave behind the underperforming part of the business’, said CEO Gavin George.
Harvey’s sister furniture chain, Bensons for Beds, also fell into administration, but was immediately bought back by Alteri in a ‘prepack deal’.
Under the deal, they plan to keep up to 175 of Bensons for Beds’s 242 stores as well as its Huntingdon manufacturing operation and nearly 1,900 jobs.
Zelf Hussain, joint administrator at PwC, said the two furniture chains, and especially Harveys, had faced ‘cashflow pressures’ in recent months, which were ‘exacerbated by coronavirus on the supply chain and customer sales’.