The firm, which makes engines for planes, Rolls-Royce is to cut 9,000 jobs as the shockwaves from the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the aviation industry continues.
The redundancies represent about one fifth of the firm’s global workforce but has not said where the cuts will be made.
Chief executive Warren East said: “This is not a crisis of our making. But it is the crisis that we face and we must deal with it.
“Our airline customers and airframe partners are having to adapt and so must we.”
He continued: “Being told that there is no longer a job for you is a terrible prospect and it is especially hard when all of us take so much pride in working for Rolls-Royce.
“But we must take difficult decisions to see our business though these unprecedented times”
The job losses, which follow 4,600 in 2018, are expected to save £700million as part of £1.3billion in annual savings.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the Government will look at how it can help Rolls-Royce and others hit by the job losses.
He said: “Clearly we will have to go to work with the employer to look at the options.
“All of us will be looking not just at Rolls-Royce but at the whole sector and the implications of this for the supply chains to make sure we are doing everything we can in terms of plans and actions to support what is a very high skilled part of our economy.”
Rolls-Royce employs about 16,000 staff in its civil aerospace unit in the UK, which is likely to be the hardest hit with its defence divisions not included.
The news is the latest in a string of blows which has see flying hours fall by 90 per cent in April as planes were grounded by coronavirus restrictions and airlines shedding jobs – British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair planning 20,000 redundancies between them.
Earlier this month GE Aviation, which has a factory at Bishop’s Cleeve, announced plans to cut about 13,000 jobs.
Culled from airlive.com