Four days ago, European manufacturer Airbus suspended production lines in France & Spain for four days whilst adequate health and safety safeguards were put into place. 84hrs later, lines have now (partially) reopened, as the giant aims to tackle it’s massive order backlog.
The finer details…
Airbus have not eased through the Coronavirus outbreak, deciding to reduce it’s production output in an effort to protect their 133,000 staff across five manufacturing sites worldwide from spreading or contracting Covid-19. In addition to this, rumours are the manufacturer has also contemplated seeking financial support from governmental-patrons (Including the UK, France and Spain) as the industry slumps globally. To support this effort, on 19 March the Spain & France based production-lines were temporarily shutdown, to allow senior-managers to risk assess, and introduce new safeguards for staff working in two of the most heavily affected regions in Europe (33,000 and 15,000 cases respectively.)
Speaking to the media Airbus said:
Stringent health and safety conditions in terms of hygiene, cleaning and self-distancing whilst improving the efficiency operations under the new working conditions [will be implemented]”
What are the new measures?
Airbus has purchased new health systems to monitor and ensure that employee’s working environments are hygienic and cleaned regularly in addition to measures of self-distancing of 1.5m at all time being obeyed by employees. Speaking out about the measures , Airbus CEO – Guillaume Faury – reiterated that “health and safety is our number one priority at airbus”, reassuring their 28,000 French employees, and 3,400 Spanish employees that sites “will only re-open if they meet the required standards.”
In addition to undertaking internal measures, Airbus as a firm are helping tackle the international relief effort to some of the most heavily affected regions, recently utilising a newly certified A330-800neo aircraft to fly supplies between China & mainland Europe (Including Facemasks and medical supplies):
At the same time, we are doing all we can to support those on the frontline to fight the coronavirus and limit it’s spread. We try to live up to our values, humbled by the complexity of the situation, and contribute as much as we can to society in these very difficult times”
We hope these measures can adequately safeguard employees and ensure the manufacturer continues production in very difficult times for the aviation industry, keeping tens of thousands of individuals in-employment in some of the most heavily affected areas.
What are your thoughts on this move by Airbus? Let us know in the comments below.
