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Airbus and Tui warn of jobs bloodbath

Airbus jet
Airbus jet

Aviation jobs across Europe face a fresh bloodbath with plane-maker Airbus and holiday company Tui flagging up brutal redundancy programmes because of Covid-19.

Guillaume Faury, Airbus chief executive, warned that his company’s “life as a business is at risk” because of coronavirus.

Airbus has already announced it is cutting 15,000 of its staff - more than 10pc of the global workforce - as demand for aircraft plummets.

The company’s UK operations, which employ about 13,000, will shed 1,500 jobs.

Airbus had hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies but these might now be necessary, Mr Faury signalled to European radio RTL as he prepared for negotiations with powerful unions in France and Germany where many of the jobs will be lost.

He added: “The crisis is existential. Our life as a business is potentially at risk if we don’t take the right measures. We are taking them.

Biggest Covid job cuts in the UK
Biggest Covid job cuts in the UK

“The situation is so serious, and we are faced with so much uncertainty, that I think no one can guarantee there won’t be compulsory redundancies if we’re to adapt to the situation, especially if it evolves further.

“On the other hand, what I say clearly is that we have a lot of work to do, we will do everything we can to avoid arriving at that point. There are lots of measures we can take between voluntary redundancies and compulsory redundancies.”

Meanwhile, Anglo-German Tui confirmed that it would axe 8,000 jobs after summer bookings fell by more than 80pc and it battles to cut costs but almost a third.

Tui hit out at “continuous changes in travel advice by various governments”, which are hampering attempts to offer holidays and flights, resulting in fresh cuts to capacity.

The company called for a “regional risk assessment policy being applied by each government rather than a blanket travel policy” to create more certainty, as well as testing for Covid-19 to be offered on arrival at destinations to avoid compulsory quarantine and movement restrictions.

Bookings for this summer are 83pc lower than a year ago but Tui reported a "favourable development" in its orders for next summer, with bookings up 84pc. This was thanks to both new bookings and rebookings, and was helped by the early launch of its summer 2021 programme.

Airbus shares fell almost 4pc to €61.7, while Tui was flat at 270.7p.