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. Mr Gallois also points out that progress must still be made in the management of “major programmes, subjected to extended and very complex partnerships”, though most of the company’s industrial programmes are on schedule. At the governance level, he acknowledges that he is “surprised to see how the climate has changed” since the management overhaul eight months ago. EADS was working like a “joint venture” beforehand, with two naturally opposed sides (the French and the Germans). Mr Gallois reiterates EADS’s main ambitions for the mid term: a midsize acquisition in the US; accelerated development in services and security; and increased focus on its core businesses. Finally, he comments on the civil aviation market, saying he expects the current cycle to reach a peak in 2011-2012. He asserts that “the Airbus-Boeing duopoly is durable”, though he admits that competitors from the emerging countries might call it into question one day, especially in the segment of 100- to 130-seat aircraft. As for the A350 XWB programme, Mr Gallois deems that EADS has enough cash to finance it over the next few years, so “a capital increase is not on the agenda”. In the face of the AMF probe and following the failure of talks with OHB over the disposal of Airbus’s German plants, EADS remains under pressure, writes Air & Cosmos. In a separate interview with the trade magazine, Louis Gallois says the company is studying “alternative solutions” in Germany, though “our target clearly remains to sell off the three sites in Nordenham, Varel and Augsburg, according to a schedule and terms to be determined”. Though he reiterates his commitment to conducting “parallel processes” in France, the UK and Germany, Mr Gallois warns that this does not mean that similar decisions will be made over the fates of the various plants “as contexts are not similar and the solutions can be different from one country to the other”.
Le Revenu, Air & Cosmos