Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Boeing slashes aircraft production plans, warns on new job cuts as coronavirus devastates travel


Boeing said Wednesday it plans to cut aircraft production and warned about the possibility of further reductions in its workforce as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic ravages demand for air travel.

The pandemic has driven up financial losses at Boeing’s airline customers and hurt demand for new planes. Boeing was in crisis before the coronavirus spread around the world because of the fallout from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max that claimed 346 lives.

Weaker demand prompted Boeing earlier this year to announce a planned workforce cut of 10% of its 160,000-person staff, through buyout packages and involuntary cuts.

“Regretfully, the prolonged impact of COVID-19 causing further reductions in our production rates and lower demand for commercial services means we’ll have to further assess the size of our workforce,” CEO Dave Calhoun said in a staff note after the company released a $2.4 billion quarterly loss. “This is difficult news, and I know it adds uncertainty during an already challenging time. We will try to limit the impact on our people as much as possible going forward.”

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