Last week's Poll: should UK government bailout the aerospace sector?

Few areas of industry have been untouched by the COVID-19 crisis, but none have had the rug pulled from beneath them quite as spectacularly as civil aerospace.

The immediate impact of a more or less worldwide shutdown in passenger flights, coupled with concerns over the longer-term impact of the virus on air travel, has had a devastating impact on a sector whose biggest problem until a few months ago was how it could continue along a seemingly irresistible growth curve whilst reducing its environmental impact.

Aerospace industries around the world have felt the impact, and the UK sector – the second largest in Europe after France – is no exception. Last month, Rolls-Royce plc announced plans to cut almost a fifth of its workforce (mainly from its civil aerospace business) 400 core jobs are at risk at Bombardier in Northern Ireland; and Airbus - which has furloughed around half of the staff at its wing factory in Broughton - is also reported to be considering mass redundancies.