It often takes a while, but slowly the politicians are beginning to get it. Airbus can no longer be considered the property of the governments of the four European countries that established the consortium in the 1970s to take on the might of the USA's commercial aircraft manufacturers.
To say Airbus has not previously been customer-focused would be wrong. Innovations such as fly-by-wire technology were breakthroughs that helped the airframer exceed by tenfold its original sales targets for the A320 family and eventually edge market leadership from Boeing.
But since its foundation, Airbus has been as preoccupied with internal structures as the marketplace itself. Initially this made sense: the company derived its capital investment largely from the taxpayer and know-how from the specialist techniques honed in the various Airbus home nations. Domestic politicians haggled over workshare, keen to keep jobs, high-tech intellectual property and supply chains within their borders - and enjoying the halo effect of a world-leading aerospace sector. It was an industry felt too vital to national interests to leave to the whims of here-today businessmen and market forces.
This had its advantages. Internal competition for key work packages kept national divisions - and their political masters - on their toes and helped the UK, for example, retain its leadership in wing technology and composites. But it has caused problems too. The crisis with the A380 was largely down to a silo mentality, where information wasn't being readily shared between engineering units in different countries.
Today it is a very different story. Airbus's market has gone global, with demand from emerging customers in Asia, Latin America and Middle East far outstripping its domestic market. At the same time, paying its bills in euros has eroded Airbus's competitiveness in a market where airliners are priced in dollars. The company is also struggling to recruit skilled professionals at home at a time when universities in India and China are turning out aero engineers in their thousands desperate to get their hands on big prestige projects.
Politicians, unions and media must realise that they cannot insist Airbus retains jobs and intellectual capital at home. Some of them, thankfully, are starting to believe their domestic economies have as much to gain from them unshackling the European giant and embracing its global industrial strategy.
Now Airbus needs to re-engineer itself
Source: Flight International
