Airbus Industrie Partners Delay Restructuring Report

PARIS — Europe’s efforts to streamline its aerospace and defense industry suffered a setback Wednesday when partners in Airbus Industrie failed to draft proposals to turn the group into a private company.

The four partners were due to report this week to their respective governments about their plans for restructuring the consortium that competes with U.S. aerospace giants Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

But Aerospatiale Matra, one of the companies in the Airbus consortium, said that round-table negotiations among the partners were reduced to bilateral talks.

The French government reacted swiftly, saying it would consult its German, Spanish and British counterparts on the report’s delay.

The other consortium partners are British Aerospace, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) and Spain’s Construcciones Aeronauticas (Casa), which is to merge with Dasa. Aerospatiale and Dasa both hold a 37.9% stake in Airbus, British Aerospace has 20% and Casa has 4.2%.

Chief Executive Philippe Camus said Aerospatiale Matra was determined to ensure that Airbus press ahead with its plans to build a “super-jumbo” airplane, the A-3XX, that would cut into Boeing’s monopoly in sales of the world’s biggest commercial jets.

The four governments have said previously that it would be easier for them to provide financial support to develop the “super-jumbo” once Airbus became a private company.

Boeing could put a damper on Airbus’ plans to build the costly A-3XX, however.

Industry analysts said that while Boeing probably would prefer not to spend $2 billion or more to expand its 400-seat 747 to 500 seats, it may well do so just to complicate Airbus’ plan to build the 600-seat A-3XX.

With the A-3XX expected to carry development costs of $10 billion to $13 billion, Airbus’ margin for error is small, and the threat of a bigger 747 could give cold feet to its potential financing partners.