Coronavirus-induced uncertainty shadows Airbus' dividend payment, forecasts

In 2019, Airbus, which employs a global workforce of 135,000, generated revenues of around 70 billion euros

European aviation giant Airbus said Monday it would cancel the planned dividend payment for 2019 and also abandon its earnings forecasts for the current year because of the economic uncertainty sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We have withdrawn our 2020 guidance due to the volatility of the situation," Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury said in a statement.

And as part of measures to bolster the group's liquidity and balance sheet in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus would also "withdraw the 2019 dividend proposal of 1.80 euros per share with an overall cash value of approximately 1.4 billion euros" (USD 1.5 billion),