Airbus Job Cuts in Defence and Space

By Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus is cutting just over 2,000 Defence and Space jobs, or 6% of its second-largest division, including hundreds of management posts while drawing back from an original target of up to 2,500 job cuts, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

More than half of the 2,043 total job reductions – affecting 1,128 positions – will fall in the struggling Space Systems business following extensive losses, they told Reuters, asking not to be named.

An Airbus spokesperson declined to comment on the figures, provided to unions during the first of two days of briefings.

Airbus in October announced plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs in Defence and Space, or 7% of the workforce, after 1.5 billion euros of writedowns in its satellites business led by the troubled OneSat programme.

Europe's largest aerospace group has said it aims to carry out the cuts by mid-2026 but will hold off taking an immediate restructuring charge pending detailed talks with unions.

In the plans outlined to unions on Wednesday, Airbus also laid out 250 job cuts in its Air Power or combat aircraft sub-division and 47 in Connected Intelligence, the sources said. The divisional headquarters will shed 618 posts, they added.

Germany will bear the largest share of the overall cuts with 689 positions affected, followed by France with 540, Britain with 477, Spain with 303, and other non-core nations with 34.

The four nations founded Airbus over 50 years ago, and the share of any cost-cutting is a politically sensitive topic.

Governments of the four host nations have been briefed on the cuts, which are part of a reorganisation plan called Proton.

Airbus builds satellites and transporters and has key shares in European missile, fighter, and space-launch programmes.

The job cuts follow a more than year-long efficiency review in Defence and Space and take aim at its high overheads and fixed costs by focusing mainly on white-collar and management positions rather than operational ones, the sources said.

Europe's top satellite makers have traditionally focused on complex spacecraft in geostationary orbit but have been hit by the arrival of cheap tiny satellites in low Earth orbit.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Airbus, Thales (EPA:TCFP), and Leonardo were also exploring plans code-named "Project Bromo" to set up a new European company pooling satellite activities to help compete with Elon Musk's Starlink.

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