As we all know, the Earth has been affected by Coronavirus or also known as COVID-19 for several months now. The dangerous virus has been affecting more than 150 countries in all over the world since early 2020. People are forced to stay at home for social distancing so that the spread of the virus can be stopped. Hugs and kisses become a dangerous action for beloved ones. While keeping distances represents love for beloved ones.
It is not only our daily activities that are affected by Coronavirus. Most businesses and industries are going down due to the pandemic. From shipping industries, culinary industries, and even aviation industry. The aviation industry is also affected since some countries in the world apply the lockdown policy in order to stop the spread of the COVID-19. So, people cannot travel as freely as before. Aerospace giant Airbus also feels the effect.
Aerospace giant Airbus is to furlough 3,200 staff at its site located in North Wales. The company has already announced the sad news. The news was delivered hours after Guillaume Faury, the Chief Executive, gave a warning that the company was ‘bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed’. Airbus stated that around half of the staff at its site located in Broughton would be placed on the scheme of the UK government’s job retention, which pays 80% of salaries. The aviation company is expected to add salaries by a further 5% to 10%.
It is said that the furlough periods of support staff and production will be shaking for the next 3 weeks. The remaining staff will keep staying on the site. The remaining staff includes 500 employees who are recently working at the AMRC Cymru facility. They work to build parts for ventilators as a part of the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium. It is announced that the company was already cutting airplane production by a third this month. This condition happens as the aviation industry is estimated to shrink due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
The Chief Executive also told Airbus’ 135,000 staff to be ready for the possibility of deep job cuts. He also warned that the company’s survival is at a bet without any immediate action. The Welsh Government mentioned that it was working with the company. The government also supports high-skilled and professional employees. While the UK government stated that the furlough scheme would be helpful for companies ‘to bounce back and get the economy up and running once the coronavirus emergency is over’.
This week, Airbus will give financial results for the first quarter of 2020. Those numbers will be overshadowed by the virus that makes global airlines struggle so hard to survive and almost totally stop plane deliveries since the lockdown policy started in March. In response to the pandemic, Airbus had already started to apply the furlough scheme that is assisted by the government. It started with 3,000 employees in France and stated it would lower output of its narrow-body jets to 40 a month. Airbus employs about 13,500 workers in the United Kingdom. Most of the workers work by making wings at its 2 main sites that are located in Broughton, in Flintshire, and Filton, Bristol.
Greg Waldron, from the aviation industry news website FlightGlobal, said that Airbus will not be able to survive the crisis if there are no significant layoffs. Even though there will be an extreme pain to go through, Europe will need to help Airbus to survive since it is an essential industry for Europe. Mr. Waldron also stated that we are going to see a big number of layoffs if Airbus cuts the production rates quite significantly. On the other hand, Boeing, which is the main rival of Airbus, is struggling for another crisis. It is because of the year-long grounding of its 737 Max passenger jet, which had been its best-selling plane.
On Saturday, the US aviation giant cancelled a $4.2bn (£3.4bn) tie-up with Brazil’s Embraer. Some analysts saw that the action is triggered by the crisis. However, the company mentioned that it is about contractual reasons that make them take such a decision.
As you can see, almost all industries in this world, including the aviation industry, are getting negatively affected by the pandemic. A lot of workers have to lose their jobs. So, let’s overcome this condition together by obeying the government’s rules and policies. So, it is hoped that all of those affected industries will be able to get on their feet again.
