Short Takes
September 18th 2020
Raytheon Technologies Corp CEO, Greg Hayes, told an investor conference this week some 15,000 jobs would be cut from Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and its corporate offices due to the COVID-19 led industry downturn. Read More » The 15,000 forecast was an increase on the 8,000 job cuts the conglomerate announced in July. Raytheon employs 195,000 people.
Airbus CEO, Guillaume Faury, said in a letter to staff this week it was "unlikely voluntary departures will be enough" for the aerospace giant to meet its target of 15,000 job cuts. Faury told the company's 130,000 staff the recovery in airline traffic during the northern hemisphere summer had "not been at the level the industry was counting on", and Airbus had to "prepare for a crisis that will probably be even deeper and longer than the previous scenarios suggested”.
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has savaged Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in its final report on the 737 MAX, the aircraft type involved in two fatal accidents that killed 346 people. "The MAX crashes were not the result of a singular failure, technical mistake or mismanaged event," the report said. "They were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA – the pernicious result of regulatory capture on the part of the FAA with respect to its responsibilities to perform robust oversight of Boeing and to ensure the safety of the flying public."
AirAsia Japan said this week it would suspend all domestic and international flights from October 1 to 24 due to the pandemic. The LCC resumed flying in August after suspending all services in April. AirAsia group CEO, Tony Fernandes, said recently a review of its Japan affiliate was underway.
Japanese broadcaster, NHK, has reported the LCC’s management was seeking 200 pilots and 400 cabin crew to accept either voluntary retirement or long-term unpaid leave. The carrier has scaled back its flight schedule for the rest of September, including all international flights.
T'way Air this week became the first South Korean carrier to return to Wuhan since the city emerged as the source of the coronavirus outbreak. The LCC commenced once a week Seoul Incheon-Wuhan nonstop flights on Wednesday. It was the first flight from South Korea to Wuhan in eight months. Korean Air and China Southern Airlines (CSA) services between Wuhan to Seoul remain suspended.
