Coronavirus: Airbus UK chairman cannot rule out further job losses after 1,700 cut
John Harrison tells Sky's Ian King Live programme that there is too much uncertainty to exclude anything.
Wednesday 1 July 2020 17:57, UK
The chairman of Airbus in the UK says he cannot rule out further job losses, a day after the company announced 1,700 jobs would be cut from its UK operation.
The redundancies are part of a major restructuring prompted by the coronavirus crisis, and are among around 15,000 jobs to be axed by the plane manufacturer worldwide.
The France-based company employs 13,500 people in the UK, including at Broughton in North Wales and Filton near Bristol.
When asked about the possibility of further cuts, John Harrison, chairman of Airbus in the UK, told Sky's Ian King Live programme: "I don't think you can exclude anything because there's so much uncertainty.
"I said in January if you'd asked me if I'd be standing here in July telling you about these job cuts, I'd have said you were crazy, so I don't know.
"But what we try to do is be responsible managers, think about the long-term sustainability of Airbus - that's our job and that's what we're trying to do today in a humane way with respect to those people who will leave the company."
Mr Harrison said Airbus was focused on "being here for the recovery", which he predicted would be around 2022 or 2023 for the single-aisle aircraft and 2025 for wide-body aircraft.
Regarding the job losses announced this week, Mr Harrison said the company would favour voluntary redundancy "as much as we can" and early retirement, but could not rule out compulsory redundancies.
The cuts are expected to be completed by next summer.
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Mr Harrison said: "People are everything at Airbus and this is an extraordinary situation.
"In January this year we were hoping to deliver 880 aircraft and we thought we were in a position that was difficult to meet demand and here we are in July with this tragic news."
He said the company is "very grateful" for help received from the UK government and the two sides are talking "every day", adding: "I exclude no particular help - we're open to everything."
One option that has been talked about in the aviation industry is an air scrappage scheme, allowing planes that are less-environmentally friendly to be retired early.
Mr Harrison said: "There are discussions about that, nothing definitive. But If this can help the industry and help the supply chain, then why not? It's good for the environment - it's a win-win. We would entertain that, certainly."
Airbus's jobs announcement comes after engine maker Rolls-Royce said in May that it would cut 9,000 jobs from its global workforce.
Thousands of roles have also been axed at British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak's toll on the global travel industry.