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| Airbus may seek $5 bn state loans for A350 |
| Bloomberg / Berlin Jun 09, 2009, 00:40 IST |
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Airbus SAS, the biggest commercial planemaker, is seeking as much as ¤ 3.6 billion ($5 billion) in loans from four European governments to help fund its A350 long-range aircraft, two people familiar with the plan said.
The loans from France, Germany, Spain, and possibly the UK, will account for 30 per cent of the estimated ¤ 12 billion development costs for the plane, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential. The aircraft, designed to seat as many as 350 passengers, is scheduled to enter service in 2013.
Airbus is developing the A350 to compete with Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner and the bigger 777 model, which carries as many as 368 passengers. Loan commitments may re-ignite a trade dispute between the European Union and the US over subsidies for planemakers. The two governments filed dueling complaints with the World Trade Organization in 2004 about aid to aerospace companies. A WTO ruling is expected in the coming year.
“We would hope that Airbus and the EU member states would not take such action on the eve of the WTO decision,” Ted Austell, Boeing’s vice president for public policy, said in a statement. “We can only reiterate our position that Airbus should finance its aircraft development using its own cash and commercial loans.”
Government ministers representing the main countries where Airbus has factories — France, Germany, Spain and the UK are scheduled to meet June 15 at the Paris Air Show to discuss the loans to Airbus.
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