Less than three weeks after saying a lack of UK government support would lead to more “permanent” job cuts in that country than other parts of its business Airbus has announced it will extend the furlough scheme for its Spanish and UK employees.
The airframe maker has announced that in the UK, 2,200 Airbus workers will have their period of furlough extended up until August 9, while in Spain, 3,100 workers will stay on the scheme until the end of September 30.
The scheme extension is the latest of series of measures by Airbus to reduce its cashburn and it has already reduced production rates of the A320neo by 40% following a stall in orders. According to Nicolas Jouan, Aerospace and Defence analysts at GlobalData says Airbus’ pre-COVID 19 production rate of 60 A320neos a month is “ far too high to be sustainable”.
“Recent A320neo and A350 order deferrals from Iberia showed that the market is unlikely to recover completely for at least 3 to 5 years. Overproduction is a perspective that plane manufacturers absolutely want to avoid, and furloughs are a convenient way to adapt to an erratic demand. More staff adjustments are therefore to be expected in the near term in the commercial aerospace division of Airbus,” he said.