BAE's statement that it plans to sell its stake in Airbus had - after all the speculation and hints of recent months - all the surprise value of a Britney Spears divorce announcement. BAE has been spiritually moving home across the Atlantic since the formation of Airbus proper in 2001 changed its status from owner of Airbus's British factories to a mere 20% shareholder in the unified European airframer.
I don't think it will have any effect on the UK's aerospace industry, either in the short or long term. If anything, it could bolster the UK's punching power within Airbus. EADS is desperate to be accepted as a prime contractor by the Ministry of Defence, but - despite its plush offices in the Strand, its significant industrial footprint in the UK and the impressive Robin Southwell banging the drum for it as UK chief executive - it has always struggled for credibility. Every UK-based media outlet - including Flight International - refers to EADS as the "Franco-German company". EADS's UK communications guys wince when they read that. People, even high up in Whitehall, think of it as a Continental European company with a sales office in London. Fact.
EADS talks about the 13,000 Airbus staff in the UK as part of its contribution to the UK aerospace industrial base. But, even though their pay slips have have had the Airbus name on them for five years, your average British opinion-former still thinks of them as "British Aerospace employees". Once Airbus becomes a 100% subsidiary of EADS, the "Franco-German" giant's status in the UK becomes greatly enhanced. If it buys out BAE's stake in MBDA (both own 37.5% - Finmeccanica has the remaining 25%), something else that has a good chance of happening, its UK footprint gets even bigger.
My colleague Max Kingsley-Jones disagrees. He thinks that, without BAE, Airbus will have no incentive to keep particularly lower-value jobs in the UK. If the bigwigs in Toulouse want to cut costs, which jobs are they going to axe: the ones in Broughton or the ones in Hamburg, Getafe or Blagnac which have powerful political lobbies fighting their corner? Does he have a point?
on April 7, 2006 10:48 PM | Reply
Eh, the UK govt will probably make it quietly clear to Airbus/EADS that further disbursements of launch aid by the UK govt depend, inter alia, on lack of discrimination in things like hirings and firings, you know, notwithstanding that Brits can be fired without occupying factories and threatening to burn them to the ground.
In fact, EADS is probably smart enough to realize that on its own. The govts want value for money in return for launch aid, and that means jobs for the boys and girls as much as anything else.
The fact that it's all now owned by one company doesn't mean that the political element has been attenuated one iota.
enplaned
on April 8, 2006 8:55 AM | Reply
In divesting it`s 20% share in Airbus, and having closed it`s regional jet business, then BAE Systems ( and the UK ) give up any pretence of any strategic involvement in Commercial Aircraft manufacture. Since the creation of British Aerospace in 1979 the story of UK Aerospace has been one of closure and contraction ( Hurn, Weybridge, Kingston, Hatfield, Preston, Dunsfold etc ). With the exception of Derby, the powerhouse of European aerospace is on a line Madrid, Toulouse, Munich and anyone can see the investment being put into those nations. As always it`s a lack of will and commitment in UK manufacturing , both politically and industrialy. And what`s left for UK manufacure - a few more years for Brough and Hawk, a few more years for Woodford and Nimrod; and fortress Warton should n`t forget that in these days of competitive tender that UK-MOD can just as well put Typhoon development and servicing into EADS Manching or EADS Getafe or Alenia Turin. There is some investment in the UK, wonderful new hangars at Duxford and Cosford so we can look back at what we had. There is a betrayal of the legacy given us by de Havilland, Sopwith, Hawker etc etc, of UK manufacturing as we follow shipbuilding, the car industry to extinction; and a greater betrayal of future generations who will be able to ply the trade in aircraft manufacture , but not in the UK.
John G Davies
on April 10, 2006 9:32 AM | Reply
BAE SYSTEMS' sale of the Airbus stake is just the logical final chapter in the rundown of the UK's civil aircraft industry. For those of us with long memories, this process started years ago, even before the formation of British Aerospace in 1977. I consider the original exit from Airbus in 1969 and the cancellation of the BAC Three-Eleven widebody airbus in 1970 as the turning points for the industry. By the time the UK got back into Airbus in 1978, it only managed to get a 20% minority stake compared with the 38% each owned by the French and the Germans. This happened principally because by then Weybridge and Hatfield were very much the "poor cousins" of the military business at Warton. It does not take a genius to realise that Warton's supremacy consolidated over the years following the formation of BAe. BAE's sale of the 20% in Airbus is just the logical conclusion of the prolonged slow death of Civil Aerospace in this country, the final nail in the coffin as it were. A very sad, but not unexpected, day for those of us who admired the Industry's great achievements in the 1950s and 1960s(Vickers Viscount,Vickers Vanguard, Bristol Britannia, De Havilland Comet, Vickers VC10, HS Trident, BAC 1-11 and Concorde amongst others)
Graziano Freschi
on April 10, 2006 6:15 PM | Reply
Great achievements? A commercial aircraft is only a true achievement if it succeeds in the market. How many of those Brit aircraft managed that? (and I speak as one who loves the VC-10 from an aesthetic standpoint...).
All too often, the UK's state-driven manufacturers built designs narrowly tailored to UK specs, rather than thinking about what would sell internationally (e.g. Trident too small relative to the 727, VC-10 designed with short African airfields in mind, etc). Concorde was a blast, but a thorough commercial failure --- imagine if all those clever UK and French aerospace engineers had put their effort into something that airlines actually wanted?
It's sad it all ended this way, but the writing has been on the wall for a long, long time.
enplaned