3,500 jobs threatened as Airbus stops A380 plane production
- Firm holds meeting with social partners
There are fears that over 3,500 jobs could be lost – spread across Germany, United Kingdom and France among others as a result of stoppage of production of super jumbo A380 aircraft considered to be the biggest commercial airplane in the world according to investigation by Woleshadare.net.
Already, Airbus has started discussions with its social partners in the next few weeks regarding the 3,000 to 3,500 positions potentially impacted over the next three years.
However, the German government is not expecting widespread job cuts in Europe’s largest economy following Airbus’s decision to scrap production of the A380 super-jumbo, the aerospace policy coordinator told the media last weekend.
Thomas Jarzombek said around 1,000 jobs in Germany would be affected by Airbus’s announcement, but added: “We expect these jobs will largely continue to exist, working on different models such as the A350, the newest plane on the market, or the A330 neo.”
In the United Kingdom, over 700 jobs could be under threat from the decision just as the firm confirmed it hopes to redeploy a “significant” number of affected staff to other projects. Airbus has 6, 000 people at its main wing factory at Broughton in Flintshire, North-West Wales, while there are another 3,000 in Filton, near Bristol; some of whom work on landing gear and fuel systems for the A380. The plane manufacturer employs 14,000 people across 25 sites in the UK, and supports a further 110,000 people in the supply chain.
Engines for the A380 are produced in Derby by Rolls-Royce, another major British aerospace employer; although it is thought that the effect on UK jobs numbers will be small. It employs 3,000 that are into designs and engineering wings, fuel systems that also develop and test aerodynamics.
There are 900 workers in defence and space division who specialise in secure information services and cyber security at Newport.
Another 1,200 and 1,000 are at defence and space division who design and manufacture advanced satellites and systems that support UK military communications at Stevenage and Portsmouth. Airbus broke the news of the suspension of its A380 airplane.
The news reverberated across the globe because the airplane is a world-class feat of engineering, much loved by passengers and were obviously saddened that deliveries will come to an end. Airbus said that more than 190 million passengers have flown in the A380 since the first plane rolled off the assembly line in Toulouse, France, in 2007.
However, the plane, which can theoretically carry as many as 800 passengers, has struggled for profitability as demand for mid-sized jets boomed.
However, the A380 Emirates will take delivery of 14 A380s over the next two years. The A380 news overshadowed strong full-year results, which beat analyst expectations despite a charge of €463million related to the end of A380 production.
The company reported revenues of €63.7 billion to the end of December 2018, up from €59 billion the year before.
Adjusted earnings before interest and tax, which excluded material charges, totalled €5.83billion, up from €3.19 billion. Cancellation will add another element of uncertainty for the future of UK operations already threatened by the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.
Enders last month decried “Brexiters madness,” saying that future investment decisions would be influenced if Brexit led to significant trade frictions.
The end of the A380 may free up space at Airbus’s Toulouse and Hamburg facilities, where final assembly is currently carried out, giving them a boost in the competition for business with the UK.
Not a few believe that the end of the A380 comes at a crucial time for Airbus, as it takes on a new leadership team after losing out to Boeing in the aircraft deliveries race in 2018.
Guillaume Faury, a former helicopter engineer who became the president of Airbus’s commercial aircraft business in February 2018, will take over from Tom Enders as chief executive in April.
According to Enders, “what we’re seeing here is the end of the large, four-engine aircraft,” said Enders, who admitted that the company was a decade late in developing the superjumbo.
Boeing, Airbus’s American arch-rival, this month celebrated 50 years of production of its 747. The Dubai airline had slashed its planned A380 fleet from 162 to 123 aircraft after struggling to fill the wide-body aircraft on some of its routes.
