Airbus has warned its workforce of 135,000 employees to be prepared for impending job cuts and cost-cutting measures as the company lays its plans for how to survive cuts in orders. Production of the manufacturer’s smaller airplanes is set to to fall by one-third to just 40 per month, while wide-body aircraft will roll out 42 percent slower. The reality, according to a letter written by the company’s CEO Guillaume Faury, is that the company lost almost one-third of its business in the space of just a few weeks, but he said the real impact won’t be quantifiable for another two to three months. That’s how long it will take before it becomes clear how long it’s going to take for international air travel to become possible, and how much demand for it there will be. The IATA expects air travel to fall by up to 48 percent in 2020 and with the world’s airlines teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, the last thing they will be thinking about at the moment is ordering new planes for passengers they don’t have. Complicating matters for both Airbus and Boeing, the discount airlines that make the most purchases of single-aisle planes are unlikely to get any help from governments around the world, who are far more likely to support traditional national carriers.
