Story ID: GPairbuslayoffs11292016
Airbus Announces Job Cuts Tied to Integration
By: Gregory Polek
Caption: Targets mid-2017 to conclude agreements with employee groups on “social measures”
Word Count: 350
Airbus Group will progressively cut 1,164 jobs as part of its planned integration scheduled for January 1, the company announced on Tuesday. The reductions will mainly affect support and “integrated functions” and positions in the Chief Technology Office (CTO) organization, it added.  

In late September Airbus’s board of directors approved a proposal by CEO Tom Enders to further integrate its group structure with Airbus Commercial Aircraft into a single entity. Under the new structure, Enders will continue to serve as CEO while current Airbus Commercial Airplanes chief executive Fabrice Bregier will become COO of the group. Bregier will at the same time assume the title of president of Airbus Commercial Airplanes. The move constitutes part of a continuing effort by the European manufacturer to reduce costs that have compromised the profitability of several Airbus programs, including the A350 widebody.

The merger will effectively complete the re-location of company headquarters from Paris and Munich to Toulouse, a move that will precipitate the transfer of another 325 jobs, Airbus also announced Tuesday. At the same time, however, it said it expects to create about 230 jobs to effect what it calls its digital transformation.

The company has set a target of mid-2017 to reach agreements with its employee groups on appropriate “social measures,” such as voluntary departures, redeployments and early retirements.

“This is a logical and necessary step in our integration journey, which started back in 2012,” said Enders. “It supports operations, group-wide collaboration and the digital transformation, which we are embarking on and which is a matter of utmost strategic priority for our entire company.”

In 2012 the company combined its human resources and finance departments of both Airbus Group (then EADS) and Airbus, and began the relocation of its headquarters to Toulouse. The next year the company reshaped it corporate governance and shareholder structure, moving away from a Franco-German joint venture to a fully independent board and a free float of more than 70 percent. Later, the company rebranded from EADS to Airbus Group and saw a group-wide integration and streamlining of more functions.