Airbus Cuts 40,000 Jobs
Troubled planemaker Airbus has announced it is to cut 10,000 jobs across Europe over the next four years.
France will be worst hit with 4,300 job losses. Germany will see 3,700 jobs go while the UK and Spain will see 1,600 and 400 jobs cut respectively.
Airbus said it would not force any compulsory redundancies but unions have pledged to fight the cuts.
Airbus boss Louis Gallois said the firm was “facing huge challenges” and “was not efficient enough”.
Mr Gallois said the prolonged weakness of the US dollar had made the restructuring necessary, while the production delays to the flagship A380 superjumbo project had provided the “trigger” for the cutbacks.
Half of the 10,000 cuts will come from temporary staff and sub-contractors not having their contracts renewed.
Mr Gallois said the job cuts would be “fairly shared” between Airbus’s four national partners.
Airbus is reviewing the future of three of its plants, at Laupheim, Saint-Nazaire and Varel, with options including their sale to suppliers or management.
It is also seeking investment partners for sites at Filton in the UK, Meaulte in France and Nordenham in Germany.
Airbus said the changes would reduce the time it took to develop new planes from seven-and-a-half years to six years, improve customer service and aircraft reliability.
Source: BBC.
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