Airbus cuts 1,100 jobs in France, Germany

Unions accuse Airbus of following 'financial logic' in cutting jobs at a time when its order book is worth nearly $1.05 trillion

Airbus announced today it was cutting more than 1,100 jobs in Europe and closing one of its sites in the Paris region as part of an ongoing restructuring programme.

A total of 640 jobs will be lost in France, mostly affecting operations in Suresnes, near Paris, where a research facility will close.

Another 429 jobs will go at German sites including in Hamburg, Bremen, Ulm and Ottobrunn, near Munich.

"Airbus Group envisages a progressive reduction of its current workforce of around 136,000 by a maximum of 1,164 positions," it said in a statement.

Unions accuse Airbus of following "financial logic" in cutting jobs at a time when its order book is worth nearly 1.0 trillion euros ($1.05 trillion), equivalent to eight to 10 years of production.

Airbus, however, is running into headwinds, prompting the search for cost-cutting opportunities.

Its helicopter division has suffered from a weak market, the company has had to set aside nearly two billion euros of provisions to cover the cost of its military A400M model, and its A380 flagship has been slow to take off commercially.

Its restructuring project, called Gemini, aims to merge the company's commercial aircraft division into a new entity, Airbus Group, by the summer of 2017.