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Airbus Furloughs in Spain Take Idled Workers Above 10,000

Airbus Furloughs in Spain Take Idled Workers Above 10,000

(Bloomberg) -- Airbus SE will furlough 3,163 workers in Spain as the European planemaker extends moves to save cash and scale down output following a collapse in demand.

The temporary layoffs under the country’s ERTE program were agreed Thursday and will run from next week through the end of September, according to Francisco San Jose, head of the union committee at Airbus’s Spanish arm.

The move means more than 10,000 Airbus staff have now been idled, with 4,700 furloughed in the U.K. and at least 3,000 in France. Layoffs haven’t yet been announced for manufacturing operations in Germany, though Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury has said the group plans similar steps there.

A spokesman for Airbus reiterated that it will make use of support mechanisms like the ERTE scheme and German Kurzarbeit that allow it to quickly adapt to changing circumstances, while declining to comment further.

The company is meanwhile preparing for permanent job cuts and aims to reach agreement with unions by next month after Faury told senior managers Thursday it must stem cash outflows that threaten its survival, people familiar with the matter have said. Temporary and contract staff are already suffering cuts.

Airbus has so far announced a production cut of about one-third. It has also put the opening of a new narrow-body assembly line at its base in Toulouse, France, on hold, and terminated the E-Fan X hybrid-electric aircraft project.

San Jose said Airbus is examining models for a return to pre-crisis production levels that range from just six months to five years in a worst-case scenario.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.