AIRBUS INDUSTRIE chief executive Jean Pierson has come out strongly in favour of a single European currency, arguing that it could come to challenge the dominance of the US dollar in aircraft pricing.
"A single currency will free us from the sway of the foreign-exchange markets, where a bad day for the dollar... wipes out months of productivity gains on European shop-floors," he told the Aviation Club of Great Britain in London.
Dollar denomination is forcing Airbus into having costly hedging mechanisms, and is a factor in "delocalising" work from European to dollar-zone countries, he says. "It will be some time before the Euro becomes the currency of reference in our business, along with the dollar, but its time will come," says Pierson.
Source: Flight International