Airbus to merge plane making division in restructure shake up

Reports today say Airbus Group will merge headquarters with the core commercial aircraft business in a corporate restructure aimed at improving profitability.

Airbus Group operates in more than 170 locations worldwide stretching across Commercial jets, Defence and Space, Helicopters, Research and Maintenance divisions.

The complex corporate structure will merge with it’s core plane-making unit, and renamed ‘Airbus’ in the shake up.

The move is aimed at stripping out bureaucracy and simplify the overall company brand, while delivering more profit and focus more on its largest unit, plane making.

The restructure will eliminate an unspecified number of management jobs in a new plan to improve profitability and focus more on its core plane-making unit.

Airbus confirmed the promotion of Fabrice Bregier to the new role of chief operating officer for the whole group, with overall responsibility for reshaping digital operations as well as for the global supply chain and quality.

The Toulouse-based company said in a statement that talks with unions about the scale of job cuts would begin.

Most of the positions at risk would be stripped from management rather than any factory workforce.

Chief Executive Tom Enders said;

“We aren’t just trying to get leaner at the shop floor level, we are rally starting at the top of the company.

We are bringing team Airbus closer together, recognising that our commercial aircraft division is by far the largest contributor to our company’s revenues and financials,”

The scale of savings, as well as number of lay offs and costs to see them through aren’t clear yet.