Boeing’s vast financial difficulties have now made their way to Canada.
On Friday afternoon, the company told employees at its Winnipeg plant it was cutting 400 jobs — a quarter of its 1,600-person workforce.
“Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Boeing previously announced we would adjust the size of our company to reflect new market realities through a combination of voluntary layoffs, natural turnover and involuntary layoffs,” Boeing said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Boeing said it had failed to sell a single commercial airplane in April, and 108 other orders had been cancelled.
Revenue, the company said, had fallen by 26 per cent in the first quarter and it was cutting about 16,000 jobs — 10 per cent of its total workforce — through attrition, early-out offers and layoffs.
Boeing spokesperson Jessica Kowal said the brunt of the cuts at Boeing are being made “in areas most exposed to the commercial aviation market as well as our corporate functions.”
She said Boeing’s Winnipeg site mainly produces components for the company’s commercial planes.
Boeing has also been struggling with the financial fallout generated by two crashes of its 737 Max that killed 346 people in five months — resulting in the plane being grounded around the world in March of last year.
With files from CBC News (Caitlyn Gowriluk), The Canadian Press
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