Airbus plans to move or cut 3,600 jobs: Challenges magazine

PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus plans to move or cut 3,600 positions within the group due to a decline in production rates of the A380 and the A400M, Challenges magazine reported on its website on Friday.

The manufacturer will tell unions at a European committee meeting on March 7 in the French city of Toulouse of its desire to begin negotiating its "workforce adaptation" plan, the economic magazine said, citing identified sources.

The German factories of Bremen and Augsburg, the Spanish plant in Seville, and the British site of Filton will be the focus of talks. Two other German sites in Hamburg and Stade, could also be affected.

The economic magazine said French sites, which have the advantage of working on several programmes, should only be affected marginally.

An Airbus spokesman said the group would not comment on the article and would not speculate on the numbers, adding that the A380 and A400M rate adjustments were not new.

"Any impact on the workforce will be discussed first with our social partners and we are always striving to find the best solutions for our employees," said the spokesman. "We have a good track record in managing these issues."

The spokesman confirmed that the subject would be discussed at the meeting next week.

Airbus has adjusted the production rates of its A380 aircraft due to weak demand and plans to reduce the delivery rate of its A400M military transport aircraft as part of the redesign of the programme's roadmap.

(Reporting by Dominique Rodriguez; writing by John Irish, editing by Gareth Jones)