A400M needs government help
By Sabine Siebold |
January 15, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE head of Airbus said yesterday it would be difficult to push ahead with its troubled A400M military plane project without considerable help from governments to meet a multibillon-dollar cost blowout.
The A400M, a powerful turbo-prop, has been hit by an anticipated overrun of 5 billion euros (US$7.27 billion) in production costs, which Airbus blames partly on political interference over industrial decisions.
"Without a very significant contribution of governments it will be very, very hard to continue the project," Chief Executive Tom Enders told reporters on a trip to Tokyo.
Airbus has said it is spending 100-150 million euros a month to keep the project afloat while it and European governments, facing severe pressure on their economies, fail to agree how to divide up the funding shortfall.
Negotiators say Berlin is holding out against a complex compromise first hatched in Britain, which had once threatened to pull out of the A400M over budget problems, and which has now gathered support among key partners such as France and Spain.
According to figures obtained by Reuters, EADS is offering to take up to 6 billion euros in actual or potential development risk while asking buyers to absorb 5.2 billion euros in increased production costs - meeting a gap of 11 billion euros.
Enders also said that he expected more orders from China due to strong growth in air traffic and that the firm was producing about two planes a month at its plant in China.
Enders said the plant in the port city of Tianjin, near Beijing, was a big success, with the quality of production as good as its plants in Toulouse and Hamburg.
The A400M, a powerful turbo-prop, has been hit by an anticipated overrun of 5 billion euros (US$7.27 billion) in production costs, which Airbus blames partly on political interference over industrial decisions.
"Without a very significant contribution of governments it will be very, very hard to continue the project," Chief Executive Tom Enders told reporters on a trip to Tokyo.
Airbus has said it is spending 100-150 million euros a month to keep the project afloat while it and European governments, facing severe pressure on their economies, fail to agree how to divide up the funding shortfall.
Negotiators say Berlin is holding out against a complex compromise first hatched in Britain, which had once threatened to pull out of the A400M over budget problems, and which has now gathered support among key partners such as France and Spain.
According to figures obtained by Reuters, EADS is offering to take up to 6 billion euros in actual or potential development risk while asking buyers to absorb 5.2 billion euros in increased production costs - meeting a gap of 11 billion euros.
Enders also said that he expected more orders from China due to strong growth in air traffic and that the firm was producing about two planes a month at its plant in China.
Enders said the plant in the port city of Tianjin, near Beijing, was a big success, with the quality of production as good as its plants in Toulouse and Hamburg.
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