Aerospace giant Rolls-Royce with factory in Rotherham announces job losses

The company, which is to shed 9,000 jobs worldwide, said the aviation industry has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

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It said the job losses from its workforce of 52,000 form part of a ‘major reorganisation’ of the business in response to a drop in demand.

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Rolls-Royce said the impact of COVID-19 on the company and the whole aviation industry was ‘unprecedented’.

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Warren East, the firm’s CEO, said: “This is not a crisis of our making. But it is the crisis that we face and we must deal with it.

“Our airline customers and airframe partners are having to adapt and so must we.

“Being told that there is no longer a job for you is a terrible prospect and it is especially hard when all of us take so much pride in working for Rolls-Royce.

“But we must take difficult decisions to see our business through these unprecedented times.

“Governments across the world are doing what they can to assist businesses in the short-term, but we must respond to market conditions for the medium-term until the world of aviation is flying again at scale, and governments cannot replace sustainable customer demand that is simply not there.”

Rolls-Royce, based on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, manufactures turbine blades.

The £110 million facility opened in 2015 and was hailed as the most advanced in the world.

It has not been revealed where the jobs are to be axed.