A similar step has been taken in France, where some 3,000 posts have been furloughed, Airbus said.
CEO Guillaume Faury reportedly told employees in an internal letter on Friday that Airbus was “bleeding cash at an unprecedented rate, which may threaten the very existence of our company.”
Airbus declined to comment on “internal employee communications” but did not dispute the report by the FT and other outlets.
Carriers around the world face a “mounting financial crisis” and could lose as much as $314 billion in revenue this year, according to the International Air Transport Association. The collapse in air traffic puts around 6.7 million jobs at risk in Europe, IATA said in a statement last week, calling for urgent government action to “preserve air services.”
The governments of France and the Netherlands have heeded the call, stumping up billions of euros to support Air France-KLM, in which they each already own a 14 percent stake.
The European carrier said Friday that following “several weeks of discussions” with the French government and banks, it had secured €7 billion ($7.6 billion) in loans backed by the French state “to help overcome the crisis and prepare for the future.”
Discussions to finalize aid from the Dutch government were ongoing, the airline said.
Lufthansa, which owns national carriers in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium, said Thursday that it is in “intensive negotiations” with the governments of its home countries regarding financial support to secure its solvency.