Boeing Co.
will this week announce about 2,500 voluntary layoffs in the first phase of broader cuts triggered by the coronavirus-driven collapse of global air travel, according to union officials.
Company executives said last month that Boeing planned to shed about 10% of its 160,000-strong global workforce this year as it reduces jetliner production in response to airlines’ inability or unwillingness to take new aircraft following huge declines in passenger traffic.
Union officials said the initial wave of layoffs was focused on Boeing’s Seattle-area commercial airplanes operation and could be announced as early as May 29. That would mark the first major reductions by the company since 2017, when it laid off around 1,500 workers as part of a wider cost-cutting drive.
Boeing is also expected to cut jobs at its fast-growing services arm as airlines cut spending on aircraft parts, as well as at its central corporate offices, executives said last month.
A number of suppliers to Boeing’s airplane factories near Seattle have already unveiled job cuts, according to state employment records.
Rival
Airbus
SE has embarked on its own wide-ranging cost-reduction effort, cutting jetliner production initially by a third.
General Electric Co.,
which makes engines and other parts for both plane makers, is also cutting thousands of jobs.
Boeing is halving output of its 787 twin-aisle jet and plans to resume only limited production of its 737 MAX jetliner this quarter, having halted output in January as it awaits regulatory clearance for the plane to fly again following two fatal crashes.
About 1,300 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, Boeing’s main engineering union, applied for the company’s voluntary layoff package and were accepted, said a union official. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said about 1,200 of its members at Boeing accepted voluntary layoffs.
In Australia, Boeing said last month that it planned to lay off about 230 workers at a facility in Melbourne that makes components for passenger jets, along with smaller reductions elsewhere in the country and in New Zealand.
Boeing declined to comment, but executives previously haven’t ruled out involuntary layoffs.
The engineering union said the company rejected some applications for voluntary separation from staff members working on defense programs or with other critical skills.
The KC-46A refueling tanker and P-8 naval surveillance jet, both based on commercial jetliners, are key sources of cash for Boeing because of the drop in deliveries to airlines.
—Mike Cherney contributed to this article.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
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