Airbus pulls back from French factory sales

Its plan to sell three German factories to other buyers also has fallen apart. Airbus and Latecoere have terminated negotiations regarding the sale of the Airbus sites in Meaulte and Saint Nazaire Ville “since a viable solution could not be finalised within the required time frame, in particular due to the current difficult financial environment”. However, Airbus said it intends to keep Latecoere as a first tier partner for the development of its A350 aircraft (pictured). The company said that the move did not change its site divestment strategy and Airbus will proceed with the carve-out of these sites into a separate unit, as is being implemented for the German sites at Augsburg, Nordenham and Varel that also have no current takers. The company said that negotiations concerning the divestment in its UK Filton site to GKN are continuing with the view to conclude in the next few weeks. Ridding itself of ownership of its factories is part of the company’s programme to find cost savings under its so-called Power 8 initiative.