Airbus COO: Situation worsened: Lufthansa subsidiary cuts 1,000 jobs

The airline Swiss wants to cut more than a tenth of all its jobs in the Corona crisis. The situation in the aviation industry is more dramatic than was foreseen a few months ago, says Airbus CEO Schollhörn. The aircraft manufacturer is also facing cuts.

The aviation industry continues to have a firm grip on the corona crisis. The Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss is planning to cut 1,000 jobs in view of the problems in the industry due to the virus pandemic. The company is relying on voluntary measures, said the outgoing Swiss boss Thomas Klühr of the newspaper "Schweiz am Sonntag". There should be a hiring freeze, part-time models with reduced salaries and early retirement.

If you look at the fluctuation among employees in recent years, it should be possible to cut 1,000 jobs without layoffs, said Klühr. According to the newspaper, Swiss employs 9,500 people. The Swiss government has supported the company with around one billion euros to help it survive the collapse of the aviation industry caused by the pandemic. Like many other airlines, Swiss is trying to counteract this with cost reductions.

Klühr said the current crisis in the industry will probably last three to five years. Further downsizing also depends on how quickly the market will recover. Should the Swiss business be reduced by 20 percent in the medium to long term, which is currently assumed, a reduction of 1,000 jobs will be sufficient. Should the situation not improve, however, more would have to be deleted.

The COO Michael Schöllhorn, who is responsible for operations at the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, also anticipates a prolonged crisis in the aviation industry. According to a preliminary report by the "Handelsblatt", he blames the renewed corona epidemic and travel restrictions. Accordingly, the "situation in early autumn is worse than we expected in summer," said Schöllhorn.

Regarding job cuts in the Airbus Group, he said: "In terms of substance, I do not see any German locations at risk at the moment." However, the announced reduction of 15,000 jobs is a minimum. Even redundancies for operational reasons cannot be ruled out.

. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Aviation (t) Lufthansa (t) Downsizing (t) Corona crisis