skip to main content

Covid-19 - Europe's economic virus casualties

Covid-19 has battered whole sectors of Europe's economy
Covid-19 has battered whole sectors of Europe's economy

The coronavirus pandemic has battered whole sectors of Europe's economy, with plans to repair the damage central to a high-stakes summit of EU leaders starting today in Brussels.

Here is a recap of some of the major casualties, amid layoffs, bankruptcies and rescue plans: 

Crash landing 

The pandemic has devastated the air transport sector, with some airlines going under, including Britain's Flybe and the Austrian and French subsidiaries of Level (IAG). 

Others have survived only with layoffs -  22,000 at Germany's Lufthansa, 12,000 at British Airways, 7,500 at Air France, 5,000 at Scandinavia's SAS and 4,500 at Britain's EasyJet. 

Virgin Atlantic will slash 3,150 jobs, Ryanair is to cut 3,250 jobs and Aer Lingus 900, Brussels Airlines 1,000, Hungary's Wizz Air 1,000 and Icelandair 2,000.

Ground handling services have also been affected, with Swiss group Swissport planning to axe 4,000 jobs in Britain.

Europe's Airbus plane manufacturer will shed 15,000 jobs, while in the engine sector Britain's Rolls-Royce and Germany's MTU will get rid of 9,000 and more than 1,000 jobs respectively.

Some governments have stepped in to limit the damage to their airlines - Germany has flown to the rescue of Lufthansa and Condor, France and the Netherlands for Air France-KLM, while Italy and Portugal have decided to nationalise Alitalia and TAP.

The tourism sector is also reeling and the world's biggest travel operator, TUI, said it will cut 8,000 jobs.

Bumpy ride 

The automobile industry has also been hit massively by the pandemic. In the biggest signs of crisis, France's Renault will axe 15,000 jobs.

Germany's BMW will also cut 6,000 jobs while Nissan is planning to close down a factory in Barcelona that employs 3,000.  

Volvo Cars meanwhile will slash 1,300 white-collar jobs in Sweden and in Britain more than 6,000 jobs will be lost at Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin, Bentley or McLaren.

Sweden's truck maker Volvo Group, which is no relation to the car maker, will get rid of 4,100 white-collar and office staff around the world.

Battered brands 

The pandemic has been fatal for many brands as their shops closed during lockdown. 

In Germany, the department store chain Karstadt Kaufhof will shed 6,000 employees. 

In Britain Intu, the owner of big shopping centres, has gone into administration, as have shops of the department store chain Debenhams in Britain. 

British rent-to-own retailer BrightHouse has gone into administration.

Other casualties include department store chain John Lewis which will axe 1,300 jobs and Travis and Perkins, a British construction and DIY materials retailer, will slash 2,500.

In France, clothing brands including Andre, Naf Naf, Camaieu, Orchestra-Premaman have all gone into administration, as has French furniture retailer Alinea. 

In the catering sector British brand The Restaurant Group is closing 125 restaurants, with the loss of 3,000 jobs from the chains Frankie & Benny's, Garfunkel's and Coast-to-Coast after having already placed Chiquito, Food and Fuel and Carluccio's into bankruptcy. Germany's Vapiano has also collapsed. 

Up to 5,000 jobs are also threatened at SSP, the British fast food specialist.

Other hard-hit sectors 

The energy sector is also suffering, confronted with a trough in demand. British energy giant BP has announced plans to axe nearly 10,000 jobs, domestic energy providers Centrica and OVO 5,000 and 2,600 jobs respectively.

Swiss logistics group Kuehne+Nagel also plans to lay off a quarter of its employees - more than 15,000 posts - and the British postal service the Royal Mail will scrap 2,000 jobs.

British chemists Boots plans to shed 4,000 jobs in Britain.

In the aid sector, NGO Oxfam said will close 18 offices and cut nearly 1,500 jobs.