Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus managed to protect its key projects and programs which would be vital for the upcoming years, Wouter van Wersch, Head of Region and Sales Europe at Airbus told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2021) Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus managed to protect its key projects and programs which would be vital for the upcoming years, Wouter van Wersch, Head of Region and Sales Europe at Airbus told Sputnik.
Last week, van Wersch traveled to Moscow for the MAKS-2021 international aerospace show which took place from July 20-25. The Sputnik news agency was an official media partner of the event.
"Even though the pandemic forced us to scale back spending on non-critical activities, we protected key current and future programs that will be vital for the coming years and decades. They include the single-aisle A321XLR, which stands to play a key future role in the passenger air travel market's recovery, along with the H160, OneSat satellites and European defence projects. And, our new but equally important concepts for zero-emission aircraft: ZEROe," van Wersch, who assumed his position at the Airbus during the COVID-19 pandemic, said.
ZEROe is the ambitious project which the European plane manufacturer has recently embarked on to develop the world's first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035. The company is developing three concepts of the plane within the program, all of which are hybrid-hydrogen.
Now, in the "challenging environment" of the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus is managing different priorities with "different time horizons," van Wersch said, adding that Airbus has been implementing a series of operational, financial and social measures since the beginning of the crisis.
"This included adapting our aircraft production rates (reduced by 40%) and focusing on cash containment and costs reductions. On the customer side, Airbus has engaged in a proactive dialogue with our partners to understand their specific circumstances and delivery requirements in the short- and medium-term. These discussions were very constructive and resulted in close to zero cancellations in 2020," he said.
The global aviation has been one of the industries most affected by COVID-19, as countries shut their borders and grounded flights to curb the spread of the disease. Many airlines across the globe have been forced to lay off workers after the first wave of the pandemic.
