The state wants to force Air France to buy Airbus
Pressure is mounting on the management of Air France-KLM. 144 MPs from all sides have signed the petition launched by Bernard Carayon, UMP deputy from the Tarn, to encourage Air France Airbus to focus on as part of a mégacommande of long-haul aircraft. Tuesday, Pierre Lellouche, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, has announced its intention to meet with Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the CEO of Air France-KLM to seek "explanations" about its intentions to purchase. The meeting should take place this afternoon.
For the government, bad foreign trade figures – which has grown to more than 7 billion euros in April – have sounded like a severe reprimand. Especially for companies with the state is a shareholder. Air France-KLM, it has "15%" of capital.Pierre Lellouche, but considers that the company can "pass the buck" in a state that has "greatly helped" the group "when he had problems with Brussels." A similar call to order the respondent last week at PSA Peugeot Citroën, after the revelation of its possible plans to close two plants in France. PSA is not a public company, but it has benefited from state funds during the crisis.
Strategic choice
Political pressure put on Air France is a measure of the challenge: a mégacommande – the first made jointly by Air France and KLM – a hundred long-haul aircraft. The project is described as historic by the leaders of Air France-KLM themselves: it should be in the tens of billions of dollars. The verdict of the direction the company should have to fall soon after the general meeting in early July.Now, executives of Air France-KLM believe that the announcement will probably be delayed for several weeks, "the time that the discussions become less passionate."
Internally, the political turn taken by the case shocks. Bernard Pedamon, the representative of the pilots on the board of directors of Air France said he was "surprised and displeased." "These are the strategic choices that can be for an airline. It is a commitment for twenty years which must respond to economic considerations, he says. Currently, we are witnessing the return of our old demons. The days when you could bring in managers office at the head of the company or impose choices of planes is a bygone era. "
At present, the weight of the two aircraft manufacturers in the fleet of the company is not the same lights.On all its long-haul aircraft, Air France Boeing totaled 63, 35 against Airbus. The company has indeed bought many Boeing 777-300 at a time when Airbus had no equivalent model. However, all of its medium-haul (ie 153 units) are Airbus.
The controversy of recent days is all the more surprising that for several months, officials of the fleet of Air France have expressed their intention to mix Airbus A350 and Boeing 787. "The case studied by our team for the purchase of these devices are not made on a corner table," said an executive of the company."We look at many criteria: the choice of engines, maintenance costs, the impact on our maintenance business …" considerations rather far from campaign issues.
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