Airbus’s chief executive, Louis Gallois, who took the position on Monday, warned that “painful” job cuts would be needed to turn the aircraft manufacturer around. Gallois replaced Christian Streiff, who resigned after less than 100 days on the job.
As the Independent reports, Gallois pledged to proceed with the new A350 mid-sized jet, needed to compete with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The project has been controversial because of the excessive pricetag for the project, despite the large percentage of the market Boeing is poised to dominate.
The A380, the project that is sinking Airbus and that they cannot easily stop before they fulfill their orders, has hit another snag. Rolls-Royce announced Friday they were suspending production of A380 engines for around a year because of delays in the project. The company will be continuing development work, but it expects to deliver no more than 30 engines to Airbus this year. It is contracted to supply 48 percent of the current orders for the 380. The production delay on the 380 is now up to two years.
Rolls-Royce won’t suffer though, as it is also building engines for the 787 as well as Bombardier.