Eads board to settle Airbus spat

THE board of Eads, the pan-European plane maker, meets today to choose a new boss for Airbus, the jetliner subsidiary whose 550-seater A380 super-jumbo made aviation history with its maiden flight yesterday.

After a marathon battle between the French and German factions that each control 30% of Eads' shares, the board must agree today whether a Frenchman or a German will take the controls of the world's biggest plane maker.

According to sources close to Eads, the list of contenders is headed by Fabrice Bregier, chairman of Eads' helicopter subsidiary Eurocopter, and Gustav Humbert, the Airbus chief operating officer.

Dissent between Eads co-chairman Manfred Bischoff of German investor DaimlerChrysler and French co-chairman Arnaud Lagardere, of the Lagardere publishing conglomerate, has deadlocked the choice for months.

Bischoff has seemed determined to contain French influence within Europe's largest aerospace group, preferably by giving the job to a compatriot. The spat has reportedly ruled out Gerard Blanc, the French deputy chairman of Airbus.

The new Airbus boss will take office on 11 May, when Eads shareholders meet at the Sheraton Hotel at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to anoint the present Airbus chairman, Noel Forgeard, who is currently co-chief executive of Eads.