The state aid measures should make it possible to "save" 2,000 jobs, out of the 5,000 positions that Airbus intends to cut in France, assured Wednesday the Secretary of State for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari. "It is envisaged worldwide 15,000 job cuts, including 5,000 in France, but that does not take into account the different state mechanisms, and enterprise systems", noted Jean-Baptiste Djebbari on BFM TV and RMC .
"We did the calculations last night," he said: "If you set up the partial long-term activity (...), 1,500 jobs would be saved" in France, where Airbus employed 49,000 people at the end of 2019. "We are also investing massively in the aircraft of tomorrow, the new generation of green, low-carbon aircraft, 500 jobs will be saved for Airbus. Already 2,000 jobs!" In addition, according to the Secretary of State, "the business arrangements: volunteering, voluntary departures, training leave ..."
"The state is asking Airbus to ensure that there are the least forced departures, the least dry layoffs possible," he said.
11% of the group's workforce threatened
Airbus announced Tuesday the elimination of around 15,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, including 5,100 jobs in Germany, 5,000 in France, 1,700 in the United Kingdom, 900 in Spain and 1,300 on the group's other sites around the world.
Regarding the effects of long-term partial activity in France, executive president Guillaume Faury was more cautious than the secretary of state for transport in an interview with AFP on Tuesday. "We do not know the precise details of the system (...) so we must speak with caution, but we think that we can go to about 1,000 jobs, people we would like to be able to keep in the business until the first quarter of 2022, "he said.