TOULOUSE, FRANCE -- Airbus SAS, the world's second largest aerospace maker, will cut 10,000 jobs -- 18% of its workforce --over four years and offload a half-dozen factories as it prepares to declare its first annual loss. The moves are part of a plan to reduce costs by some $2.8 billion annually by 2010.



A two-year delay has added 50% in development costs, making the company's A380 plane an $18 billion undertaking and leading the company to report its first-ever annual loss.

The company is also finding itself under the gun to develop another model capable of competing with Boeing's 787.

Airbus employs 56,400 workers in 17 sites in France, Germany, the U.K. and Spain. Partners will be sought for three plants that currently specialize in building parts from metal, and three other plants -- Laupheim and Varel in Germany and St. Nazaire-Ville in France -- will be sold, the company said.

Local unions have indicated that they will fight the layoffs.

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