The terms of these workforce reductions, in a division which currently employs some 35,000 people and is experiencing a drop in demand for space activities, were not immediately specified, according to this source speaking under cover of anonymity. Airbus management declined to comment.
Great difficulty
World number one in telecommunications satellites, Airbus is in great difficulty faced with the fall in demand, just like Thales, another heavyweight in the sector which had already announced in the spring a redeployment plan within the group of 1,300 positions from of its space branch Thales Alenia Space. Weighed down by new charges for its space activity, Airbus saw its profit halved in the first half.
“Our mid-year financial performance primarily reflects the significant expenses related to our space activities. We are working to resolve the root causes of these difficulties,” declared executive president Guillaume Faury when the results were published in July. The aircraft manufacturer had already warned at the end of June that it had to make a new provision of “around 900 million euros” in the first half linked to the review of development costs and the expected commercial prospects of certain telecommunications satellite programs. and navigation.
“Transformation plan”
This amount was eventually refined to €989 million, as the program-by-program review continued. In 2023 Airbus had already recorded a charge of 600 million euros in its accounts for this same space activity, which last year represented around 2 billion euros in turnover out of the 65.4 billion achieved by the band.
“We are addressing the root causes of these problems through a transformation plan, which will focus in particular on implementing a more selective tender response strategy, strengthening governance and internal controls, and in terms of cost control and competitiveness,” declared Guillaume Faury in July.
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