Airbus CEO Thomas Enders gave an interview to German radio Deutschlandfunk,

Airbus CEO Thomas Enders gave an interview to German radio Deutschlandfunk, which was then transcribed and sent to the press. He insisted that Airbus needed to further move to international markets. The roots of the company are in Europe, and will always be, but success also depends on the capacity to win contracts in North America and in Asia. “My goal is that Airbus will one day be seen not only as a European firm but also an American one”. The recently-won tanker deal is a major step of that strategy. He expects the deal to be definitely ratified by the GAO in the coming weeks. He evoked the weakness of the US currency as a handicap and suggested that other structural measures are to come, such as slashing costs while raising production pace, to produce up to 50 places by 2010. Mr. Enders also ensured that responding to the huge needs or airlines for more-than-100- seat airplanes could only be achieved by making environment-friendly jets. Asked about a new schedule for the A380 programme, he replied: “I can not answer that question right now and here”, referring to the ongoing general review. But he added that the production pace was indeed very ambitious, with 13 planes delivered this year and twice that number next year. He admitted that Airbus had underestimated the complexity of the development, and the production phase, especially in Hamburg. These problems are being solved from Toulouse by some 2,500 technicians. And this is not the most efficient way to process, he hinted. A spokesman for Airbus revealed that the general review of the A380 schedule announced by Mr. Enders would be completed within weeks rather than months. Yet, the press focuses on the second part of his statement: the confirmation that Mr. Enders wrote a letter to Emirates warning that the programme continued “to be challenging” and was “at a critical stage”. In the first place, an Emirates spokesman confirmed the letter and mentioned: “at present we have nothing more to add”. But Tim Clark, CEO of the airline group, agreed to comment: “We’ll know in the next couple of weeks whether the deliveries of our A380 will be affected”. But he showed signs of worries: “if this morphs into a further delay, then it would be very serious for us. We don’t want to destabilize any of our plans”. The Wall Street Journal reports that Airbus is seeking to know whether its suppliers can speed up production of components fast enough. In a separate statement, Etihad Airways revealed it had been warned, too. Qantas Airways was not available for comments. Air France-KLM and Lufthansa said they had not received any warning. Nevertheless, the Herald Tribune digs into all these statements and enlightens that, unlike what some papers and airlines might have said, the documents sent by Mr. Enders did not include any warning about new delays. “We have sent letters to inform […] that we are undertaking a review of the A380 programme”, spokeswoman Barbara Kracht stated. “There is nothing more in that letter”. Bloomberg, Reuters, Dow Jones AFX, AFP (06/05), The Wall Street Journal, Herald Tribune, Les Echos, Le Figaro, La Tribune, Liberation, Aujourd’hui en France, France Soir, Handelsblatt, Financial Times Deutschland, El Pais, La Vanguardia, Expansion, Die Welt, Suddeutsche Zeitung