According to Michael Schoellhorn, Airbus’ Chief Operating Officer, renewed travel restrictions and rising coronavirus infections have worsened the outlook for the aviation industry.

Current air travel levels are only a fraction of normal levels because of travel restriction imposed by authorities to curb the spread of the coronavirus which emerged from Wuhan, China. This has resulted in a slow down of deliveries of new aircraft by airlines.

In a statement Airbus said, it needs to trim 15,000 jobs globally.

In an interview to German business daily Handelsblatt, Schoellhorn said the situation in early autumn was worse than the company had expected in the summer. The above mentioned job cut would be the bare minimum given that some Airbus factories were underutilized even before the pandemic.

Labour unions now fear that the management could decide to shut down entire locations.

Schoellhorn has ruled out such a development for Airbus’ German facilities.

“In terms of substance, I do not see any German locations at risk at the moment,” said Schoellhorn.

Last month, Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury had said, the planemaker would do its best to cut costs without resorting to compulsory redundancies; it could however not guarantee that they will not happen.

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