Airbus Group further integrates by merging its Group structure with its largest division Airbus Commercial Aircraft into a new entity.
On Sept. 29, the board of directors of Airbus Group approved a respective proposal by the company’s chief executive officer Tom Enders.
“Already in July, we launched a transformation program that is heavily focused on digitalization of the company’s core processes and tools,” said Enders. “It will impact the way the company and its employees will work and the way we organize Airbus in the future. Lean structures and speedy decision-making are prerequisites for the success of digital transformation.
“The merger of Airbus Group and Airbus paves the way for an overhaul of our corporate set-up, simplifies our company’s governance, eliminates redundancies and supports further efficiencies, while at the same time driving further integration of the entire Group. The other two divisions, defence and space led by Dirk Hoke; and helicopters led by Guillaume Faury, remain integral parts of the Group and will derive considerable benefit from the merger through more focused business support and reduced costs.”
The new entity will be led by Enders. Fabrice Brégier will become chief operating officer (COO) and president of Airbus Commercial Aircraft. As COO, Brégier will have Group-wide responsibilities, inter alia for reshaping digital operations — the core part of the Group’s transformation program — as well as for global supply chain and quality.
“We are bringing team Airbus closer together, recognizing that our commercial aircraft division is by far the largest contributor to our company’s revenues and financials. We are committed to delivering the next level of performance by, for example, further streamlining our corporate structures and establishing a simpler and leaner organization overall with less bureaucracy, closer collaboration and faster processes,” said Enders.
The details of the merger and its resulting impacts are now subject to discussions with the social partners on Group, national and divisional level. The merger provides the opportunity to introduce a single Airbus brand for the Group and all its entities, effective January 2017.
These latest efforts are the continuation of a number of integration and normalization steps, which Airbus has taken in recent years: In 2012, the company combined the human resources and finance departments of both Airbus Group (then EADS) and Airbus. The Group also relocated its headquarters to Toulouse.
In 2013, the Group fundamentally reshaped its corporate governance and shareholder structure, moving away from a Franco-German joint venture to a fully independent board of directors and a free-float of more than 70 percent. Subsequent steps brought the company’s rebranding (EADS became Airbus Group) and the Group-wide integration and streamlining of additional functions.
Unfortunately speedy decisions in the aircraft industry means mistakes and safety issues and cost to fix. The industry has for years been based around having experienced engineers with plenty of background and knowledge to design safe aircraft, there are no short cuts. Airbus unfortunately is becoming a production company and only survives on engineers knowing from the past how to do things right, it has become a program/ process based organisation worrying more about how fast the next plane can be designed or when the next plane can be delivered at the detriment of safety. The German and French labour laws and the unpragmatic French will hopefully bring the company down before too much damage to the flying public is done.