Rolls Royce records £5.4 billion loss after cutting thousands of jobs

The engine maker said its aerospace business had seen an “unprecedented” slump in activity due to the coronavirus crisis and expects demand for large engines to remain below 2019 levels until 2025.

Its mammoth half-year loss for the first six months of 2020 compares with losses of £791 million a year earlier.

Rolls announced in May that 9,000 jobs would be axed globally to adapt to plunging demand amid the pandemic – with at least 5,000 of those now expected to go by the end of 2020 across the UK, Germany, Singapore and other worldwide bases.

Rolls said it was also looking to offload parts of its business to raise at least £2 billion to boost its balance sheet and has earmarked ITP Aero in Spain for sale.

Warren East, chief executive of Rolls, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly affected our 2020 performance, with an unprecedented impact on the civil aviation sector with flights grounded across the world.

“We have made significant progress with our restructuring, which includes the largest reorganisation of our civil aerospace business in our history.

“This restructuring has caused us to take difficult decisions resulting in an unfortunate but necessary reduction in roles.”

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