It is an aviation sector struck down by the Covid-19 epidemic and struck by its financial impact which presented its annual results this Thursday morning.
They are "horrible" at Air France-KLM, to use the word of its financial director Frédéric Gagey.
At ADP, it is Churchill's formula of "blood, tears and sweat" used by CEO Augustin de Romanet.
As for the executive chairman of Airbus Guillaume Faury, he evokes a market at the very least "difficult".
Caught in the turbulence of this unprecedented crisis, with no prospect of getting out of it in the short term, the three French companies have put in place considerable cost reduction plans.
With thousands of job cuts.
Air France: 8,500 job cuts
At Air France-KLM, turnover collapsed by 59% in 2020, with a loss of 7.1 billion euros.
It includes the 822 million committed by the group for voluntary departure plans launched to cushion the shock.
While they were at 83,000 at the end of 2019, the workforce of the Franco-Dutch company has shrunk by 10% in one year.
KLM thus lost 5,000 jobs.
At Air France, there are 3,600 fewer, including 368 pilots and 1,103 stewards and hostesses via a collective contractual break.
But it is not finished.
By the end of 2022, plans already launched provide for another 4,900 departures from Air France (and 900 from KLM).
The total target of 8,500 jobs to be eliminated should be reached.
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"We are in the middle of Air France's voluntary departure plan," Ben Smith, Air France-KLM CEO, did not hide at a press conference.
The first phase, of 2,000 positions, ends this week.
The second will take place in the spring and the last this summer.
"
Given the catastrophic results announced on Thursday, will the company cut more jobs?
“We are working on other initiatives but it is too early to talk about them.
We are already going to carry out this plan, which is of significant magnitude, ”kicked Anne Rigail, interviewed by Le Parisien this Thursday morning.
Relaunched later on the question, the Director General then specified that “these additional initiatives do not only relate to employment but also to office costs, by passing the Roissy headquarters to flex office, on IT costs and on purchases in partnership with KLM… ”
Airbus is doing better than Boeing, but ...
At Airbus, the figures are less alarming but the real losses: -1.1 billion euros in 2020. If it is doing much better than its American competitor Boeing (-11.9 billion dollars), the European aircraft manufacturer still lost 29% of its turnover in 2020.
He also launched a social plan in June 2020. Initially set at 4,952 in France, job cuts have been revised downwards.
"The establishment of long-term short-time work and the research efforts of the recovery plan have enabled us to save jobs in engineering, particularly in the development of hydrogen energy," said a spokesperson.
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New figure negotiated: 4,248 job cuts.
The plan should be executed in the coming months "only with voluntary departures and retirements, without dry layoffs," said the same source.
"But these are the jobs at the top of the iceberg," notes Michel Molesin, CGT coordinator of the Airbus group.
Behind these large contractors, there are even more subcontractor jobs that are disappearing.
"
ADP suffers a loss of 1.17 billion euros
ADP had to come down from its little cloud.
While it was breaking records just a year ago, the group has seen 60% of passengers disappear from the twenty or so airports it manages around the world.
Consequence: a loss of 1.17 billion euros and a drastic cost reduction plan.
In addition to the closure of terminals and all-out savings, ADP will leave in 2021 "1,500 people, of which 700 will not be replaced", explains the group.
In exchange for this collective contractual termination agreement signed unanimously by the unions, the management undertook not to make any forced departure until 2022.
