TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) – The chief executive of European planemaker Airbus has warned staff it may have to carry out compulsory layoffs after air travel failed to recover as quickly as anticipated from the coronavirus crisis, a letter seen by Reuters showed.
“I owe it to you to be transparent: it’s unlikely that voluntary departures will be enough,” CEO Guillaume Faury wrote. The letter marks a more pessimistic tone after Airbus previously said only that it could not rule out compulsory measures.
Unions and the French government have urged the Toulouse-based planemaker to avoid compulsory layoffs as it sheds up to 15,000 posts to cope with plummeting travel demand.
(Reporting by Johanna Decorse; writing by Tim Hepher; editing by Jason Neely)
