Approximately 50% of its employees at the Wales facility will be placed under the job retention programme of the UK Government. Credit: Airbus SAS.

Aircraft maker Airbus has announced its plans to furlough 3,200 staff at its Broughton facility in Wales, UK.

This announcement comes just hours after Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury stated the firm was ‘bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed’.

According to Airbus, approximately 50% of its employees at its facility will be placed under the job retention programme of the UK Government, which pays 80% of wages.

The company is likely to top-up salaries by an additional 5%-10%.

The furloughs will be carried out over the next three weeks. The remaining employee will continue at the site, including the 500 currently deployed at the AMRC Cymru facility to manufacture parts for ventilators as part of the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium.

The firm announced its plans to reduce aircraft production by one third. This move comes as the aviation sector is expected to reduce considerably due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Faury also warned the 135,000 employees to be prepared for deeper job cuts as the company’s survival was at stake unless immediate action is taken.

Meanwhile, the Welsh government stated that it is working with the company and to support its workers.

According to the UK Government, its furlough scheme is expected to help firms ‘to bounce back and get the economy up and running once the coronavirus emergency is over’.

Earlier this month, Airbus temporarily halted operations at two of its facilities in Germany and its one facility in Alabama, US, in the wake of the pandemic.

Airbus paused commercial aircraft production and assembly activity at its site in Bremen from 6 to 27 April. Key business support services at this site, however, remained unaffected.

The company also suspended production and assembly activity from 5 to 11 April at its Stade facility in Germany.