The German newspaper Die Welt is reporting that Airbus expects output to drop 40 percent for the next two years as the damage inflicted on global demand for travel by the pandemic becomes clear. “We assume that production and deliveries will fall 40 percent compared to plans from the pre-coronavirus era for 2020 and 2021,” said CEO Guillaum Faury. That’s an even darker outlook on the future than the company had espoused until recently, which was that production would fall by one-third. Industry experts anticipate this will translate into the cutting of between 14,000 and 20,000 jobs, depending on what the final production targets turn out to be. While Faury had previously been optimistic that Airbus could get away with simply furloughs for employees would be enough, this no longer appears to be the case. “It’s brutal, but we have to do it,” he said. “It’s about securing our future.”
