Airbus targets the Japanese aviation market.

Louis Gallois said Airbus hoped to sell A380 and A350 aircraft to the Japanese airlines this year. The plane maker owns 4 % of the Nippon aviation market only, compared with about 50 % on a global scale, he told journalists in Tokyo. “There are major fleet renewal needs [in Japan] and, obviously, we want to grab our slice”. Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who started an official visit to the archipelago on Friday, urged his Japanese counterpart, Yasuo Fukuda, to work on an opening of the Japanese market, in particular the civil aviation market, historically dominated by Boeing. Mr Gallois emphasised that some 18 Japanese groups were part of the A380 programme. According to an aeronautics expert cited by Liberation, “Airbus has a chance today to sell A380s to ANA or JAL. An announcement could be made by June”. Boeing, for its part, entrusts 35 % of its 787 Dreamliner’s production to Japanese suppliers. Yet, in the face of delays to the 787 programme, “Japan progressively realises that it needs two suppliers”, adds the expert. A rumour among Mr Fillon’s delegation hinted that ANA, Japan’s second-largest airline, could actually order five of the European A380 superjumbos soon, reports Les Echos. AFP (11/04), AFX (11/04), Dow Jones Newswires (11/04), Les Echos, Liberation, France Soir, La Correspondance Economique