Airframe maker Airbus will reduce its production and deliveries by around 40% over the next two years, and potentially lay-off tens of thousands of employees, according to an interview with the German media yesterday.
“We cannot disconnect ourselves from developments among airlines,” Airbus senior executive Guillaume Faury said German newspaper Die Welt.
At the end of Q1, Airbus reported a net loss of €481million while consolidated revenues fell by almost a sixth to €10.6billion from the first three months of 2019.
Airbus had been talking about reducing production by around 30%, but this forecast has now been raised to 40%. This reduction is expected as early as next year. Airbus, like rival Boeing, has seen a number of orders either cancelled or delayed, such as the recent move by LCC EasyJet to postpone the delivery of 24 new aircraft it purchased from them for five to seven years.
The UK carrier also has the option to cancel seven aircraft that were initially due for delivery between 2022 and 2026.
“The security of our future is at stake,” Faury said to the German newspaper, but the company “will leave no stone unturned” when it comes to looking at ways to reduce costs without firing staff.
Airbus expects demand for mid-sized aircraft to pick up more quickly than wide-bodied plains, for which they expect demand to “remain low for the next five years, as there was already an oversupply on the market before the crisis,” though “at some point in time, a major replacement wave for the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A330 is expected, but this is still a long way off.”