Airbus CEO Louis Gallois:
Power8 prepares way for "New Airbus"

"We cannot continue to produce at our current Euro costs and sell at Boeing's dollar prices,"

so (same document):

A large part of the cost savings will be achieved through reducing the total Airbus overhead workforce (including temporary and on-site supplier workforce) by 10,000.

Subcontractors are also being substantially reduced. That's happening in a fairly complicated way I haven't got a handle on. But production is being outsourced to dollar zone and low-labour-cost countries.

So "layoffs" are "unlikely" essentially because they've already been made.

(It would be interesting to see what Melanchthon has to say, he may know more about this than I do. Also our much-regretted friend Elco B, where are you, Elco?)

As to EU or government attitudes, they've always been broadly supportive of Power8 afaik. Only if the crisis really began causing a lot more trouble would I expect Sarkozy to step in, and more likely on his hobby horse of "the euro is too dear". In other words, not in favour of good French-German coordination on this...

In other words, COFACE is obliged to lend at the exact same conditions to Airbus as USEXIM can lend to Boeing for export of planes to a given country.

Also, export credit is only authorised for exports to non-OECD markets (offshore wind is the one exception, as far as I know: my first offshore deal was with the Danish ECA for export to the Netherlands...).

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

"EADS has to become a normal company," President Sarkozy said at the Paris Air Show last month, underlining complications caused by the group's unusual management and shareholder structure.

nanne:

Bregier gave few details on how Airbus plans to finance the euro10 billion ($13.26 billion) A350 program. He said the development costs have so far been funded by Airbus and some of its suppliers in a risk-sharing program.

Well, IMHO, the answer is to formalise a risk and revenue sharing programme within a cross-border EADS Partnership framework.

The existing companies get to become John Lewis style staff-owned companies, with all the shares held in trust. That should interest the Unions, I would have thought, melancthon?

They would then become "Managing Members" (or capital users, if you like) of the EADS Partnership.

Governments (insofar as suppliers are unable or unwilling) would invest development capital into each project in return for a proportional "Equity Share" of the revenues from the planes once developed.

They may then sell out their proportional Equity Share "Units" (eg billionths of EADS gross revenues) to more risk averse investors interested in the long term revenue stream from the planes developed.

Such an Islamically sound "Capital Partnership" structure would probably appeal to the likes of Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways and so on who are all building massive fleets as strategic investments and have the advantage over most other airlines that they actually have their jet fuel supply locked up.

It's possible to see the evolution of global long term strategic partnerships here where EADS would cease to sell planes, but lease them directly (making more money in servicing than they do in building them, as likely as not) with strategic energy partners; a consortium of service provider partners (airline staff cooperatives) operating the planes; and the proposition for Investors of long term direct participation in revenue streams from air travel.

So the money paid by travellers on EADS planes would simply be shared in agreed proportions by EADS; an Energy Partner; and to the consortium of Worker Cooperatives (Human Capital) who make the whole lot work.

No transactions; no middlemen; Peer to Peer air transport - or maybe Pier to Pier... ;-)

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson