Eight months after he took over the CEO post alone at EADS,

Louis Gallois draws an assessment of ongoing changes, challenges to take up, and future ambitions at the aerospace group. In an interview with French financial weekly Le Revenu, he discusses the impact of the ever-weakening dollar on EADS’s 2008 forecasts, saying the company should be efficiently hedged against the weak US currency through 2010, but recalls that the Power 8 restructuring programme was based on projections of a $1.35/1.40 exchange. This is why “Airbus considers additional measures to Power 8 that would take effect in 2011-2012 rather than in 2010”. In parallel, EADS will pursue its target of producing more in dollars.

The French press goes on covering the implications of the AMF

probe for EADS. In a comment piece, David Victoroff, columnist for Valeurs Actuelles, tries to understand the “EADS imbroglio” after the AMF confirmed its suspicions of insider trading and information misuse. All the good work done by Louis Gallois to re-establish a “climate of confidence” within the company is now under threat. Above all, this affair demonstrates yet again the difficulties of having public and private shareholders -with different national interests- coexist within the same capital structure. Things are simpler at Boeing, for instance, a purely private group. In an interview with Les Echos, Daniel Labetoulle, president

Airbus will announce its decision regarding the German plants

it failed to sell off to OHB at the end of this month, said Christian Meloni, a CGT union member of the group’s works council. Mr Meloni cited Thomas Enders as acknowledging there was “no buyer” for the three sites at present, but that a solution would be unveiled at the end of April. The management, however, gave no hint on alternative solutions. Mr Enders reportedly added that discussions on the partial sale of the Airbus sites in the UK, France and the Laupheim site in Germany, were progressing normally.
AFP (03/04), AFX (03/04)

EADS plans to decentralise its commercial activities

and to pass the commands onto its various divisions, reports La Lettre A. In the past, the teams of Jean-Luc Lagardere had decided to concentrate these activities in order to retain control over the group’s divisions. This organisation has been called into question since the death of Mr Lagardere and the progressive departures of his so-called “Lagardere Boys”. Besides, as order books are full, Louis Gallois’s priority is no longer to win new orders but to make sure deliveries to customers remain on schedule. Hence, he focuses on production capacities and productivity gains, in the face of the rising euro.
La Lettre A

The protection of sensitive industries remains a complex issue

at the European level, analyses L’Agefi Hebdo. The weekly cites EADS as an example, recalling that Russian investors suddenly entered the group’s capital. This is why the German government relaunched the idea of a golden share, after this option had been once unsuccessfully suggested by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in July 2007.
L’Agefi Hebdo (03/04)

Airbus is not in a hurry to replace its A320 family,

reports Air & Cosmos. “These aircraft grow old well and our customers operate them longer than planned”, points out Alain Flourens, A320 programme manager. Besides, orders for the aircraft family have exploded since the end of 2004, from 1,029 units to deliver to 2,512 at the end of 2007. The order book is full through 2012. In this light, Airbus does not plan a successor until 2017-2020 and rather focuses on bringing slight progressive improvements to the existing models. John Leahy, Airbus’s chief commercial offer, recently pointed out that “a new mid-haul aircraft family would only make sense if it brought to airlines a major breakthrough in terms of fuel consumption,

Boeing’s first-quarter deliveries rose 8.5 %,

compared with the same period last year. The group delivered 115 aircraft, including 87 of the 737 model and 21 long-range 777s. Boeing sped up production, indeed, after winning record orders for 3,458 planes in recent years. It plans to deliver 475 to 480 aircraft this year, up from 441 in 2007. Reuters (03/04), Bloomberg (03/04)

For the first time in aviation history, Boeing has flown

a manned aircraft propelled by hydrogen fuel cells. The aircraft was officially unveiled by a team of US and European Boeing engineers at the Ocana airfield, in Spain. The test flights took place at the beginning of the year. During the flights, the pilot flew the 6.5-metre-long and 800-kilo plane for approximately 20 minutes at an altitude of about 1,000 metres. “This is a historic technical prowess”, declared John Tracy, head of technologies at Boeing. Le Figaro Economie comments that this achievement allows Boeing to score points against its rival Airbus in the race for ‘green aviation’. For now, however, it seems these energy sources can only be applied to small planes. Cited by The Times, Francisco Escarti, director of the Boeing research centre in Ocana, said the company would “continue to explore their potential as well as that of all durable sources of energy that boost environmental performance”,