GE plans to cut up to 13,000 jobs in further blow to US aviation sector
General Electric (GE) said today it is planning on cutting the global workforce of its aviation unit by as much as 25 per cent, or up to 13,000 jobs.
The announcement is the latest blow to fall on the beleaguered aviation sector which has been hit hard by the freeze in travel triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, Boeing said it would cut 10 per cent of its global workforce, or 16,000 jobs, while British Airways said it was planning on cutting up to 12,000 jobs.
The GE Aviation job cuts are part of the $3bn (£2.4bn) in cost and cash savings announced by the company last month and include previously announced cuts, including a 10 per cent cut to its US workforce announced in March.
GE Aviation chief executive David Joyce told employees today that the “deep contraction of commercial aviation is unprecedented, affecting every customer worldwide. Global traffic is expected to be down approximately 80 per cent in the second quarter.”
Over the weekend billionaire investor Warren Buffett revealed that his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway had jettisoned all its aviation assets.
Explaining the decision at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, Buffett said that “the world had changed” for the sector.
“We were not disappointed at all in the businesses that were being run and the management, but we did come to a different opinion on it”, he added.
“We will not fund a company [which] we think that it is going to chew up money in the future.”