Airbus Turbulences

Airbus parent EADS must proceed with restructuring its subsidiary, the Financial Times commented. "A house divided against itself cannot stand," the London-based business daily wrote in its Wednesday edition. "The past days have shown how the group's dysfunctional structure hampers its effectiveness. So long as the group is run in the interests of Franco-German balance instead of purely commercially, then its performance will continue to suffer -- to the detriment of shareholders and staff alike."

Zurich's Tages-Anzeiger remarked that the Franco-German dispute about who will carry the brunt of Airbus' restructuring is hurting the company's competitiveness. "Economic criteria are on the verge of going under on account of regional-political considerations, selfishness and petty jealousies," the Swiss paper noted. "But time is too short for pointing the finger. If Airbus doesn't want to lose more ground against its archrival Boeing, a decision has to be taken soon."

The French daily Le Monde struck similar tones that the company should change its structure if it wants to succeed. "The Power 8 restructuring plan is very painful, with cutbacks of over 10,000 jobs, but it is essential," the Paris paper wrote. "Airbus is in danger of going under due to an anachronistic national battle. If the company wants to continue playing in the same category as Boeing, it must change its industrial model and give up the German-French double leadership, which shows today how much it disables things. Germany has a right to a normal share, but Berlin has to realize that Airbus above all has to be freed from nationalism."

The Nordwest-Zeitung in Oldenburg observed that the one-time model group for pan-European cooperation EADS with its subsidiary Airbus had emerged as a battleground of national interests. "Practically every hour, authoritative sources and lesser sources are speaking out," the German daily wrote. "The seal of quality is still undamaged, just the masquerade of a German-French partnership which functions over all hierarchical steps has fallen. The influence from Paris has been too massive for years -- and more recently also from Berlin -- to let the management act according to economic considerations alone."

The political components are much more dangerous to Airbus than economic factors, remarked the Fuldaer Zeitung. "The French appear to follow a tough position not least because of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, clearly at the expense of German sites," the paper commented. "Chancellor Angela Merkel is therefore well advised to give top priority to the cutbacks of 10,000 jobs in question and defend vested German interests against its neighboring country's greediness. On top of everything, the fact that France wants to pull a fast one on Germany doesn't exactly strengthen the political side's negotiating power vis-à-vis private investors."