Boeing competitor Airbus to cut up to 2,500 jobs in space, defense sector

Boeing competitor Airbus on Wednesday announced it would take steps to cut 2,500 jobs in the company’s defense and space division through the middle of 2026.

Airbus said the job cuts would result from plans to streamline the division's organizational structure, specifically focusing on headquartered functions and creating more accountability for its business lines, according to the company’s press release. The company says it has approximately 150,000 employees worldwide.

The changes are a response to a “fast changing and very challenging business context,” Airbus Defence and Space CEO Mike Shoellhorn said, pointing specifically to disrupted supply chains, changes in warfare and budget cuts.

Shoellhorn said “transformation efforts” to address the financial pressures, in particular with operational performance and risk management, began in 2023 and have started “bearing fruit.” Now, however, he said the company must take the next steps, focusing on adapting to the space market.

“We want to shape the Division so it can act as a leading and competitive player in this ever-evolving market. This requires us to become faster, leaner and more competitive,” Schoellhorn said.  

“Airbus has a long track record of acting as a responsible employer in difficult situations and this time will be no different,” he added. “It is clear though that we must adapt if we want to champion our industry and lead Europe’s ecosystem of Defence Aerospace.”

The European company’s defense and space business took a significant 477 million euro loss on the A400M military transport plane last year, The Associated Press reported, noting that was in part a result of high inflation. Loss of access to the Russian Soyuz rocket launchers and the Vega-C rocket failure in late 2022 also marked blows for the European space sector, the AP added.

Boeing, the company’s main competitor, has been struggling to bounce back in recent years — first from crashes of two of its passenger jets in 2018 and 2019 and then from an in-flight incident in which a door plug detached from the plane with panicked passengers aboard.

The AP noted that beyond its defense and space business Airbus has been profiting and has outpaced Boeing for five years in a row, in terms of plane orders and deliveries.