Helicopters - Airbus Helicopters in a decline - AVweb

Business Drop Prompts Job Cuts at Airbus Helicopters

Following a 17-percent decline in earnings this fall, Airbus Helicopters has announced a plan to trim its workforce by 582—mainly at Marignane, France, where it employs nearly 9,000—implemented through voluntary departures and attrition over the next two years. Worldwide, Airbus Helicopters employs 23,000 people. Along with the rest of the helicopter industry, the company has suffered from the energy slump. For the third quarter, revenue was off 3 percent, while earnings fell $219 million from the year-ago period.  The revenue slide was fueled by waning demand for super-medium and heavy helicopters, as well as an overall drop in commercial hours flown. Airbus Helicopters has also been hurt by the worldwide grounding of the H225 heavy twin in June following a fatal April 29 North Sea crash. While the EASA lifted that grounding in October, it remains in force in the UK and Norway. Continued strong demand for the H135 and H145 twins—which prompted shifting workers from plants in France to Germany where those two helicopters are produced—helped to offset some of these losses. Airbus Helicopters also continues to implement “transformation measures and efforts to adapt to market challenges.” One of these could be a delay in the company's H160 medium-twin program. Projected initial deliveries of that aircraft have slipped to 2019 from 2018, with a third prototype scheduled to join the program early next year.