Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the aviator sector had to face net losses more than doubled last year to 3.2 billion euros and forced it to ax thousands of jobs.

There was a loss of $4.4billion or 3.7 billion euros, compared with a loss of 1.3 billion euros in 2019. Rolls-Royce had raised 7.3 billion to survive the pandemic via shareholders and borrowing from the Bank of England.

Also, he had announced that it would temporarily shut its jet engine factories for a fortnight this summer to combat slumping demand. "We continue to plan for a range of recovery scenarios, including the risk of further setbacks to the recovery in air travel caused by new strains of the Covid-19 virus," Rolls Chief Executive Warren East said.

"However, our central assumption is for a gradual market recovery in 2021, with a slow start to the year but accelerating in the second half as global vaccine roll-outs progress and travel restrictions ease."

"2020 was an unprecedented year. The company responded swiftly by "launching the largest restructuring in our recent history, consolidating our global manufacturing footprint and delivering significant cost reduction measures," he added.

"The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the group was felt most acutely by our civil aerospace business." - 'Regrettable' job cuts - He noted that this resulted "in a regrettable, but unfortunately very necessary, reduction in the size of our workforce," he said.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson noted that "air travel is unlikely to be able to return to any semblance of normal this year. "This morning's numbers are a sobering reminder of how much damage the pandemic has done to an iconic brand, and also illustrate how hard the long road back will be."