Back to the drawing board (Airbus Woes, Long but Interesting)

The Business Online ^ | 9 July 2006 | Ross Tieman

[lowbuck]

EXECUTIVES of Europe’s aircraft manufacturer Airbus were engaged this weekend in another crisis. They had hoped to unveil the design of their new A370 aircraft this week on the eve of the Farnborough Air Show. The “launch” of the new plane, which is even more critical to the company’s future than its troubled A380 super-jumbo, had been pencilled in for 14 July until British partner BAE Systems announced it was triggering a full audit of the Toulouse-based European planemaker.

On Friday, the launch of the mid-sized jet was suddenly suspended to allow new chairman Christian Streiff to “review” the troubled project, so Airbus claimed.

BAE’s move came after an independent investment bank, NM Rothschild, valued BAE’s 20% stake in Airbus at just £1.9bn (E2.75bn, $3.50bn), half what BAE chief executive Mike Turner expected two months ago when he invoked his option to sell its stake to EADS, the parent company of Airbus.

BAE’s indecision about whether to sell its Airbus stake now at this price has major implications for financing the A370 development. The audit announcement has caused consternation at Airbus’s Toulouse headquarters where executives have been fire-fighting since Airbus’s 13 June announcement that its super-jumbo A380 had hit technical problems resulting in late delivery to customers.

But the focus on delays to the A380, and the board changes at Airbus and EADS that have since followed, have overshadowed a more crucial programme – the future for the new A370.

[lowbuck]

More on the Airwars. . . Tough times at Airbus High!

[308MBR]

First, the Fwench socialists totally screwed their automotive industry, and now that Nissan is de-facto owned by the Fwench Gummint, hide and watch while it goes the way of Citroen and Peugeot in this country.

Next, the Fwench give birth to Airbus, a malformed entity from the beginning with a socialist's birth certificate, a bloated staff composed of government bureaucrats and incapable engineers, and unlimited taxpayer funding (sounds like NASA, but I digress). Of course the product is a joke. I guess it would have been too simple for them to have just written their design goals, mailed them to Porsche Engineering, and when the design returned have the planes built in Czechloslovakia and THEN sell them from France.

Oh hell no, they couldn't do that due to the facts someone might make a profit, and the damage it would do to Fwench National Pride. Don't worry about that. The French haven't had anything to be proud of since the battle for Verdun.

[Mr Rogers]

Thanks for the interesting post. Airbus has good engineers, but lacks strategic direction - and their new leaders (I mean, industrial managers) won't help. You can have good technicians, but if you don't know where to go, it is all for naught. They should have been looking for AIRLINE people to replace their CEO, not WIDGET people.