The chief executive of Airbus has reportedly issued a stark assessment of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the plane maker.
In a letter to workers, seen by news outlets, Guillaume Faury is said to have warned the company was “bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed”.
This month the firm announced it was cutting aircraft production by a third.
It comes as the aviation industry is expected to shrink significantly in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Mr Faury also told Airbus’ 135,000 staff to brace for potentially deep job cuts and warned that its survival was at stake without immediate action, according to the Reuters news agency.
Airbus is this week due to deliver financial results for the first quarter of the year. Those figures will be overshadowed by the pandemic that has left global airlines struggling to survive and almost completely halted plane deliveries since lockdowns started in March.