* EASA suspends PIA's authorisation to serve European member states; Australia suspends all international flights to/from Melbourne Airport until mid-July
Airbus has announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs as it deals with the effects of the coronavirus crisis. Following the in-depth analysis of customer demand that has taken place over the recent months, Airbus anticipates the need to adapt its global workforce due to Covid-19 by approximately cutting 5,000 positions in France, 5,100 positions in Germany, 900 positions in Spain, 1,700 positions in the UK and 1,300 positions at Airbus’ other worldwide sites.
These figures include the Airbus subsidiaries Stelia in France and Premium AEROTEC in Germany.
“Airbus is facing the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. “The measures we have taken so far have enabled us to absorb the initial shock of this global pandemic. Now, we must ensure that we can sustain our enterprise and emerge from the crisis as a healthy, global aerospace leader, adjusting to the overwhelming challenges of our customers. To confront that reality, we must now adopt more far-reaching measures. Our management team and our Board of Directors are fully committed to limiting the social impact of this adaptation. We thank our governmental partners as they help us preserve our expertise and know-how as much as possible and have played an important role in limiting the social impact of this crisis in our industry. The Airbus teams and their skills and competences will enable us to pursue our ambition to pioneer a sustainable future for aerospace.”
The company expects to make the cuts by summer 2021, but hopes the majority of redundancies will be voluntary or through early retirement of staff. The company warned in April that it was "bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed" as it struggled with the impact of the coronavirus crisis. It said on Tuesday that production had dropped by 40% in recent months, and that it did not expect air traffic to get back to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 at the earliest.
Also this week, one of Europe’s largest low-cost airlines easyJet said it would close three UK bases and cut about 2,000 staff. Air France/KLM are also set to be targeting more than 6,500 job cuts over the next two years.
Elsewhere, The European Union's Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has suspended Pakistan International Airlines' (PIA) authorisation to serve European member states over safety concerns, the agency says, days after a Pakistani inquiry found almost a third of active Pakistani pilots may have obtained their licences fraudulently. EASA found deficiencies in the airline's safety management system and was to suspend its authorisation as of midnight GMT yesterday. The decision is also applicable to Vision Air, a Pakistani charter airline, EASA said in an emailed statement, confirming the decision. PIA grounded 150 of its 434 pilots on Friday following an announcement by the country's aviation minister that 262 of the country's 860 active pilots' licence holders may have obtained their credentials by committing examination fraud.
Last week an initial investigation found human error was primarily responsible for a deadly PIA plane crash in southern Pakistan last month. On May 22, 98 people were killed when a PIA Airbus A320 crashed into a residential neighbourhood about 1.4km (0.9 miles) from Karachi's Jinnah International Airport.
The Australian government have suspended all international flights to/from Melbourne Airport until mid-July, at the earliest, amid a rise in coronavirus cases. The new air travel restriction, which is part of a wider Melbourne lockdown, will affect airlines including Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, and Qatar Airways.
Europe confirmed its travel ban effective for the next two weeks: 15 countries will be permitted to travel in, including: Australia, Rwanda, Korea and Thailand. Travellers from all other countries, including: United States, Russia, India, Brazil, all of the Middle East, most of Africa are not permitted to enter the European Union unless they are EU citizens/residents.
Finally, passengers travelling to/from Italy (on any airline) are now banned from bringing luggage onboard for the overhead lockers. The overhead lockers must remain empty, and passengers may only board with a bag small enough to fit under the seat in front. This is to reduce ‘standing in the aisles’ for the overhead lockers, and the crowding that occurs upon boarding and disembarkation. As it’s a government decree, passengers do not need to pay a supplement to put their suitcases in the hold. It’s worth highlighting that many airlines are avoiding crowding in the aisles by implementing a staggered boarding/disembarkation. Example: after landing, seat rows 1-3-5-7-9 are told they may stand up, retrieve luggage from the overhead lockers above, and exit the aircraft.
* The author is an aviation analyst. Twitter handle: @AlexInAir
Airbus has announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs as it deals with the effects of the coronavirus crisis. Following the in-depth analysis of customer demand that has taken place over the recent months, Airbus anticipates the need to adapt its global workforce due to Covid-19 by approximately cutting 5,000 positions in France, 5,100 positions in Germany, 900 positions in Spain, 1,700 positions in the UK and 1,300 positions at Airbus’ other worldwide sites.
These figures include the Airbus subsidiaries Stelia in France and Premium AEROTEC in Germany.
“Airbus is facing the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. “The measures we have taken so far have enabled us to absorb the initial shock of this global pandemic. Now, we must ensure that we can sustain our enterprise and emerge from the crisis as a healthy, global aerospace leader, adjusting to the overwhelming challenges of our customers. To confront that reality, we must now adopt more far-reaching measures. Our management team and our Board of Directors are fully committed to limiting the social impact of this adaptation. We thank our governmental partners as they help us preserve our expertise and know-how as much as possible and have played an important role in limiting the social impact of this crisis in our industry. The Airbus teams and their skills and competences will enable us to pursue our ambition to pioneer a sustainable future for aerospace.”
The company expects to make the cuts by summer 2021, but hopes the majority of redundancies will be voluntary or through early retirement of staff. The company warned in April that it was "bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed" as it struggled with the impact of the coronavirus crisis. It said on Tuesday that production had dropped by 40% in recent months, and that it did not expect air traffic to get back to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 at the earliest.
Also this week, one of Europe’s largest low-cost airlines easyJet said it would close three UK bases and cut about 2,000 staff. Air France/KLM are also set to be targeting more than 6,500 job cuts over the next two years.
Elsewhere, The European Union's Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has suspended Pakistan International Airlines' (PIA) authorisation to serve European member states over safety concerns, the agency says, days after a Pakistani inquiry found almost a third of active Pakistani pilots may have obtained their licences fraudulently. EASA found deficiencies in the airline's safety management system and was to suspend its authorisation as of midnight GMT yesterday. The decision is also applicable to Vision Air, a Pakistani charter airline, EASA said in an emailed statement, confirming the decision. PIA grounded 150 of its 434 pilots on Friday following an announcement by the country's aviation minister that 262 of the country's 860 active pilots' licence holders may have obtained their credentials by committing examination fraud.
Last week an initial investigation found human error was primarily responsible for a deadly PIA plane crash in southern Pakistan last month. On May 22, 98 people were killed when a PIA Airbus A320 crashed into a residential neighbourhood about 1.4km (0.9 miles) from Karachi's Jinnah International Airport.
The Australian government have suspended all international flights to/from Melbourne Airport until mid-July, at the earliest, amid a rise in coronavirus cases. The new air travel restriction, which is part of a wider Melbourne lockdown, will affect airlines including Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, and Qatar Airways.
Europe confirmed its travel ban effective for the next two weeks: 15 countries will be permitted to travel in, including: Australia, Rwanda, Korea and Thailand. Travellers from all other countries, including: United States, Russia, India, Brazil, all of the Middle East, most of Africa are not permitted to enter the European Union unless they are EU citizens/residents.
Finally, passengers travelling to/from Italy (on any airline) are now banned from bringing luggage onboard for the overhead lockers. The overhead lockers must remain empty, and passengers may only board with a bag small enough to fit under the seat in front. This is to reduce ‘standing in the aisles’ for the overhead lockers, and the crowding that occurs upon boarding and disembarkation. As it’s a government decree, passengers do not need to pay a supplement to put their suitcases in the hold. It’s worth highlighting that many airlines are avoiding crowding in the aisles by implementing a staggered boarding/disembarkation. Example: after landing, seat rows 1-3-5-7-9 are told they may stand up, retrieve luggage from the overhead lockers above, and exit the aircraft.
* The author is an aviation analyst. Twitter handle: @AlexInAir
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