Julian Moxon/Paris
Airbus Industrie and Italy's Alenia/Finmeccanica have agreed to form a company to lead European participation in the AirExpress AE-100 regional aircraft, to be built under a joint venture with China and Singapore. The Italian group is also being invited to "draw nearer" to Airbus through participation on a range of other aircraft projects.
The deal resolves a major sticking point for the AE-100 programme, which had been threatened with serious delays if Alenia's involvement, and the resulting workshares, were not settled. Under the agreement, Alenia will get slightly less than 40% of the European stake in the AE-100, which will be set at around 36%. The remaining share will be taken by the four Airbus partners.
In a related development, which resulted from a high-level meeting of Alenia and the four Airbus partners, agreement was reached to invite the Italian manufacturer to join all future Airbus programmes.
The consortium cites possible participation on the A3XX and Future Large Aircraft military transport, and says that Alenia will be "…asked to participate in the programmes of new derivatives-such as the A340-600".
The move clears the way to including Alenia in the consortium, once it is restructured into a company. "It brings them a lot closer to Airbus," says one source.
Airbus is now likely to study the plan for design and development of the AE-100 before it is launched, the hope being that there will be agreement on a go-ahead early in 1997. Meanwhile, a European push to deepen co-operation with China has moved forward, with the European Commission and the European Association of Aerospace Industries launching a two-and-a-half year initiative to improve the relationship with China in areas such as airworthiness, certification and regulations, product support and maintenance and air-traffic management.
Source: Flight International
