Airbus in confusion

Can it be reformed?

Airbus chief executive Christian Streiff has resigned and will be immediately replaced by parent group EADS co-chief executive Louis Gallois, EADS said, adding that Gallois will keep his current role...

Streiff, who took up the Airbus post only three months ago, reportedly submitted his resignation after the EADS board first rejected his plan to revamp Airbus and then approved it only in broad terms, without assuring him the autonomy he sought to draft and implement its details...

EADS shares have been hit hard by successive profit warnings related to delays in the Airbus A380 super-jumbo, and analysts fear both the A350 XWB and A400M military jet [A400M actually a turboprop - MC] programmes may also be facing expensive problems...

Why it may not be reformable: it simply ain't a real business.

Mr Streiff, entrusted with drawing up a "recovery action plan" for resolving the production problems at the A380 superjumbo which have put it two years behind schedule, angered both French and, especially, German political leaders with his plans to transfer A380 production from Hamburg to Toulouse. The German plant is held responsible for the delays which could cost Airbus hundreds of millions in airline compensation.

The Germans, who meet their French counterparts at a summit in Paris on Thursday, have threatened to take a state holding in EADS, with Franz Josef Jung, defence minister, saying at the weekend it would counter French influence. The French state owns 15% while the Germans could take some or all of the 7.5% cars group DaimlerChrysler wants to offload, reducing its own holding to 15%...

More:

Since Streiff announced a reform plan, his blueprint has come under fire as politicians and workers in Germany and France worried about how employees may be affected. Airbus has never cut jobs in its 36-year history. In past slumps, the company managed by asking some employees to work part-time...

Mark C.

Posted by markc at October 9, 2006 05:54 PM