Airbus struggles to get out of its crisis

"Europe is in a bad way. We knew that already. What is new is that this 'bad way' now goes beyond the strictly political domain: even joint ventures, meant to illustrate the old continents' dynamism, are struggling", laments François-Xavier Pietri. "This is certainly the case with Airbus which is turning into a fiasco, at least from the point of view of Franco-German cooperation, for which it had been a model for a long time. So here we have Louis Gallois obliged to delay his famous Power 8 plan, the only power of which has so far been in its devastating effect. Where is the problem in redeveloping the European aircraft manufacture ? In the Franco-German balance of sacrifices that have to be made to restart a tired machine; in the balance of investments authorised, industrial choices privileged and eventually the sharing of success. The problem is that notions of balance differ between neighbours who were friends yesterday and are foes today."

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