Arianespace will embark on a 50% cost-cutting exercise following its $183 million loss in 2001. The move is an attempt to safeguard the European launcher company's future in a depressed commercial launch market, against stronger competition from the new Boeing Delta IV and Lockheed Martin Atlas V fleet, which are due to make their debuts this summer.
Arianespace has not said where the savings will come from, but industry sources suggest that a workforce reduction and cuts at the Kourou launch site in French Guiana are likely.
Meanwhile, Arianespace shareholders have approved a plan to divide the chairman and chief executive roles in the company. Current chairman and chief executive Jean-Marie Luton will become chairman only, while managing director Jean-Yves Le Gall becomes chief executive. The change was required under a French law concerning new economic regulations which moves corporate governance structure closer to the UK/US model.
* Arianespace delivered the Intelsat 905 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit after the 71st consecutive successful launch of an Ariane 4 model - a 44L - from Kourou on 5 June.
Source: Flight International