EADS chief looks to US to avoid euro ‘torture’

…Mr Gallois can be thankful that the first A380s are at last flying Asian skies. The assembly lines are running smoothly, if two years late. Yet Airbus still has only 177 firm orders. The break-even level is 420. Bad luck has played its part. Oil at $100 a barrel has given an edge to Boeing’s super-light, composite Dreamliner. Even so, the concept of a hub-to-hub giant may have been flawed in a world where travellers prefer point-to-point. Will the A380 prove an illustrious flop, like Concord?

All we do know is that Mr Gallois is trying to break EADS dependence on Airbus as fast as he can, citing the cyclical ups and downs of the jet business. “Commercial aircraft make up 47pc of Boeing’s activities, but 65pc of EADS’s. It is a risk for us. Our horizon is to go to 50:50,” he said.

Airbus has always been a political venture au fond, a metaphor for Europe’s unification. It ironic that the euro should now force it to embrace America, and that a French Enarque should be the one to execute the task.

Telegraph