Louis Gallois discussed the “hot topics” in Airbus’s news

In separate interviews with French and German newspapers over the weekend, Louis Gallois discussed the “hot topics” in Airbus’s news. He notably confirmed that additional cost-cutting measures would be announced by the summer to “compensate the dollar effect”. These efforts will be effective “in 2011 and 2012”. As Airbus has more than 3,500 aircraft in its order book, there will be no drastic job-cut announcements at the plane maker and its subcontractors, he told La Depeche du Midi. These measures, in fact, are mainly aimed at increasing Airbus’s purchases in dollar. EADS also plans to boost production in the US, India and Mexico in order to escape the crushing cost of the euro, he said. Mr Gallois, however, claimed that the company wanted to maintain its high-technology operations in Europe and that Airbus would not be transferred to the US or anywhere else. “Toulouse, which needs a high-quality industrial activity, will remain Airbus’s capital”. For that matter, he added, Airbus plans to invest € 30M in the creation of an investment fund that will support the aerospace industry in the region. This fund should eventually have a € 100M capital, also contributed by other partners. Mr Gallois acknowledged that he was “disappointed” at the recent failure of the sale of Meaulte and Saint-Nazaire to Latecoere, but the Toulouse-based group will remain a key supplier for the plane maker, notably for the A350 programme. Commenting on the progress of Airbus’s major programmes, Mr Gallois said the A380 delivery schedule would be postponed by “three to four months”, so this latest delay is not a “catastrophe” for client airlines. The A400M, for its part, should make its first flight in the summer as planned. Still, he told Berliner Zeitung that he wished the EU governments could support Airbus financially as the US did with Boeing. According to Mr Gallois, who cited EU calculations, “Boeing received $ 800M in subsidies from the US government in 2006 for its research and technology activities”. By comparison, Airbus was only granted “€ 60M from the European governments”. Reuters (23 & 24/05), La Tribune, Aujourd’hui en France, La Depeche du Midi (23/05), Berliner Zeitung (24/05), Welt am Sonntag (25/05), Suddeutsche Zeitung (24/05), Die Welt (24/05), Hamburger Abendblatt (24/05), The Daily Telegraph, Negocio