Recent announcements from the global aviation industry

Airbus announces it is cutting aircraft production by a third.

In a letter to workers, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury warns the company is ‘bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed’. As the aviation industry is expected to shrink significantly, production of aircraft is estimated to be cut by a third with potential job cuts too out of the current 135,000 workers. Before the outbreak of Covid-19, the outlook for Airbus was very positive.

Airbus is considered a vitally important industrial programme for Europe and it is expected that Europe will be keeping Airbus going.

Air France-KLM secure loans and state-guaranteed funds

Like many others in the aerospace industry, The Franco-Dutch airline group struggles to keep afloat due to the coronavirus outbreak. The French and Dutch governments are said to be preparing a least a €9bn aid package. Company Chief Executive Ben Smith warned on Friday that the government aid was “not a blank cheque” and would require tough action on costs and performance, Reuters news agency reports. “This financing will give us the opportunity to rebuild. Faced with the upheaval the world is going through, we are going to have to rethink our model immediately,” he added.

Air France and KLM merged in 2004 and has a fleet of 550 aircraft.