Member States are currently scrambling for national solutions, forgetting the sector's European dimension that requires a European solution. We must prevent an asymmetric recovery with some countries losing out. There will be no winners if we do not work together in Europe.

The European aerospace recovery plan ‘Flying into Recovery’ published by industriAll Europe today, calls on all stakeholders to come together and fight for the future of the European aerospace sector. Urgent action is needed to protect thousands of jobs and trade unions call for the establishment of a European Task Force to implement much needed European solutions. There is no time to waste. 

The European aerospace sector has long been considered the jewel in the crown of European industry, a real European success story. A high-tech, high-value industry which supports over 600,000 direct jobs in the EU and thousands of further jobs in the supply chain across Europe. These jobs are highly skilled and well paid, and Europe has a proud history of research, design, manufacturing, and maintenance in this important field.

However, the global COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the aerospace sector, most notably in civil aeronautics. The collapse of commercial flights, which plummeted by up to 90% (April 2020), resulted in airlines cancelling or postponing new orders leading to disastrous effects on the European manufacturing sector. These included a huge reduction in demand, production cuts, transport restrictions, supply problems, delays, cash-flow problems and the stoppage of some ‘’noncritical’’ work.

This global crisis is risking the loss of a massive European achievement, with thousands of job losses announced at Airbus (15,000 jobs), Rolls-Royce (9,000 jobs) and GE Aviation (10,000 jobs). Furthermore, with the focus on national recovery plans, as opposed to a real European recovery plan for the sector, the very European nature of the sector is at risk. 

Isabelle Barthès, Deputy General Secretary of industriAll Europe, said:
“The European aerospace industry has long been a brilliant example of a truly European industrial project with a high-tech value chain spread right across Europe. Member States are currently scrambling for national solutions, forgetting the sector's European dimension that requires a European solution. We must prevent an asymmetric recovery with some countries losing out. There will be no winners if we do not work together in Europe." 

‘’Our recovery plan is clear, we need urgent action at European level now and we call for the immediate creation of a European Task Force which will implement European solutions to protect the sector and safeguard thousands of high-quality jobs throughout Europe."

‘’The European aerospace sector is a European success story, lets keep it a success story.’’ 

IndustriAll Europe's aerospace recovery plan: EN, FR, DE

Contact: Andrea Husen-Bradley (press and communication), Elspeth Hathaway (policy adviser)