The news comes seven weeks after Rolls-Royce said that it would slash 9,000 jobs across its global workforce, warning that UK factories were set to be the worst hit. The Derby-based maker of aeroplane engines had already been facing problems before the virus pandemic dealt a serious blow to the economy.

It was forced to make changes to its Trent 1000 engines, grounding many of its customers’ planes to perform maintenance work, after an engine fell to bits and rained metal on an Italian town.

The company said it was making “good progress” on fixing the Trent 1000s, and had got the number of grounded aircraft to below 10.

But the virus put extra pressure on its customers, as so-called widebody engine flying hours were down by 75 percent in the second quarter of the year.

“These are exceptional times. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a historic shock in civil aviation which will take several years to recover,” said chief executive Warren East.

He added: “We are taking steps to resize our Civil Aerospace business to adapt to lower medium-term demand from customers and help secure our future.

“This means we have had to take the very difficult decision to lose people who have helped us become the company we are and who have been proud to work for Rolls-Royce.”

The business revealed that cash inflow had dropped by £1.1billion, and it had taken a further £1.1billion one-off hit as it stopped sending out invoices.

MORE than 3,000 British workers have applied for redundancy at Rolls-Royce, with many leaving in the next two months after the company announced a sweeping round of job cuts. The engine-maker said that around two-thirds of the workers will leave the business by the end of next month.