Airbus to cut jetliner production

European manufacturer Airbus announced plans to cut jetliner production across the board after the coronavirus epidemic triggered aviation’s worst industrial crisis and drastically reduced deliveries to cash-starved airlines.

In its largest-ever production adjustment, Airbus said it was reducing output of its best-selling A320 narrow-body family by a third to 40 aircraft a month.

It also cut production of larger wide-body jets with the A350 falling by about 40 percent to six aircraft a month, and the A330 family down by more than 40 percent to two aircraft a month, based on the most recently published Airbus production figures.

Announcing a parallel slowdown in new investments, chief executive Guillaume Faury said the cuts reflected the “new realities” of airlines, whose industry association warned this week of the loss of 25 million jobs dependent on air transport.

“We have no short-term cancellations in front of us, but we have a lot of requests for postponements and deferrals … for 2020 and sometimes 2021,” Faury told reporters. “That’s why we are decreasing our production rates.”

The move, which Airbus said represented an average output reduction of a third, came as data showed that March deliveries had halved to 36 jets.

Read more via France 24/Reuters