Boeing cuts 12,000 jobs, resumes production of grounded 737 Max jetliner

Boeing is cutting more than 12,000 US jobs through layoffs and buyouts as coronavirus pandemic seizes travel industry. And aircraft maker says more cuts are coming. Shortly after disclosing job cuts, Boeing anunced Wednesday that it has resumed production of grounded 737 Max jetliner. Two dely crashes of Max jets pushed Boeing into a financial crisis months before coronavirus squeezed global air travel to a trickle.

Boeing, one of nation's biggest manufacturers, said it will lay off 6,770 US employees this week, and ar 5,520 workers are taking buyout offers to leave voluntarily in coming weeks. company h said it would cut 10 per cent of a workforce that numbered about 160,000. A Boeing spokesperson said Wednesday's actions represent largest number of job cuts, but several thousand ditional jobs will be eliminated in next few months.

Nearly 10,000 of layoffs and buyouts are concentrated in Seattle area, home to Boeing's commercial-airplanes business. company previously anunced more than 600 jobs cuts in Cana and Australia. Chicago-based Boeing has reduced production rates on several airplane models in response to falling demand. company's defense and division has remained relatively stable, helping offset decline in air travel and demand for passenger jets. Air travel within US tumbled 96 per cent by mid-April, to fewer than 100,000 people on some days. It has recovered slightly.

Transportation Security ministration said it screened 264,843 people at airports on Tuesday, a drop of 89 per cent compared with same Tuesday a year ago. COVID-19 pandemic's devastating impact on airline industry means a deep cut in number of commercial jets and services our customers will need over next few years, which in turn means fewer jobs on our lines and in our offices, CEO David Calhoun said Wednesday in a memo to employees.

Calhoun said company faces challenges of keeping employees safe and working with suppliers and airlines to assure traveling public that it can fly safe from infection. Calhoun warned that Boeing will have to just business plans constantly because pandemic makes it hard to predict impact on company's business. Union representatives said y were still seeking details of layoffs.

About 1,300 members of Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aero, which represents Boeing engineers, h been approved for severance packs, including one week of pay for every year of employment, up to 26, according to union. This is an extremely tough time for anyone working in aero, and certainly at Boeing, said Bill Dugovich, a union spokesman. union has been running webinars to explain Boeing's severance program and how to apply for unemployment, he said.

Boeing's crisis began with two crashes of its 737 Max, which killed 346 people and led regulators around world to ground jetliner in March 2019. Company engineers have been working for more than a year and a half to fix flight-control software that played a role in crashes, pushing planes' ses down repeatedly. Federal regulators have t yet approved Boeing's fixes, but on Wednesday, company said workers at a factory in Renton, Washington, started assembling Max jets at a low rate under procedures designed to prevent spreing coronavirus.

Boeing executives expect to resume deliveries of plane before October, which will give company some much-needed cash. company's problems have deepened with coronavirus, which has cut global air traffic by up to 90 per cent and caused airlines to postpone or cancel orders and deliveries for new planes. Boeing is a leing US exporter whose importance to US ecomy has been highlighted by President Donald Trump.

For many years, Boeing was largest private employer in Washington state - even after corporate hequarters moved from Seattle to Chicago in 2001 - and it continues to have an outsized impact on state's ecomy. Washington state was one of first COVID-19 hot spots in US and has suffered more than 1,000 deaths from disease, according to numbers from Johns Hopkins University. Boeing temporarily shuttered jet-assembly plants in March after dozens of workers contracted virus. Boeing Co. suppliers such as Spirit AeroSystems have alrey cut thousands of jobs.