ALEXANDER CAMPBELL / LONDON
The Czech industry ministry is due to decide this month on a rescue plan for bankrupt aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody. Boeing, which owns 35% of the company and has three out of five board seats, says it has submitted its proposal to "make Aero Vodochody successful" to the Czech government and is "waiting for a response".
Although Boeing's investment in 1998 was originally seen as a way of bringing the company international sales, the proposal is believed to centre on cost-cutting and restructuring measures, as a way of moving the company out of bankruptcy.
The Czech government, which owns the rest of Aero Vodochody, has become increasingly impatient with Boeing, last year setting a deadline of the end of 2004 to bring in international sales, and is suggesting publicly that the time has come for Boeing to pull out. The new restructuring plan may not change their minds: a suggestion by Boeing last year to make half the 2,000-strong workforce redundant met vigorous opposition from chairman Antonin Jakubse.
An effort by Aero Vodochody to boost the prospects for international sales of its L-159 trainer/light attack aircraft by gaining US export subsidies has also made little progress. Under the USState Department's Foreign Military Financing programme, equipment at least 50% US-made can be subsidised when sold to foreign governments, but the State Department says it has "made no actual decision on the aircraft" and has received"only a few preliminary expressions of interest" in the L-159.
Source: Flight International
