EADS has presented plans to cut 5,800 positions across its defence and space businesses by the end of 2016 as part of a restructuring of these units.
It comes after the company in July decided to consolidate its defence and space businesses into a new division, Airbus Defence and Space. The cuts also cover positions at Airbus headquarters and corporate functions.
"We need to improve our competitiveness in defence and space – and we need to do it now”, says Tom Enders, EADS chief executive. “With our
traditional markets down, we urgently need to improve access to international customers, to growth markets. For that to work, we need to cut costs, eliminate
product and resource overlaps, create synergies in our operations and product portfolio and better focus our research and development efforts.
"That’s what the restructuring and integration plan for our defence and space business is all about.”
The company on 9 December presented plans to its European Works Council. It expects final redundancies to be between 1,000-1,450 as it will not renew around 1,300 temporary contracts, additional voluntary measures and plans to offer up to 1,500 positions for redeployment at its Airbus and Eurocopter divisions.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
