France’s deadline to resolve EADS crisis expires

Airbus had overtaken Boeing, a US company, in the highly competitive market for passenger jets, but Boeing is set to regain the lead this year. The A380 delay has sparked a crisis of confidence in Airbus’ ability to keep abreast of its US rival.

The crisis has prompted questions on the level of communication between the management of Airbus and EADS, as well as the effectiveness of EADS’ unusual management structure, which is split between French and German executives.

Industry experts have said several changes could be made but stressed that any solution would have to take into account the dual management of the company. Frenchman Forgeard shares the chief executive position with German counterpart Thomas Enders.

The German government however said Monday it saw no reason to change the Franco-German management structure of EADS, which reported sales of more than 30 billion euros (38 billion dollars) last year.

Another possible change could see EADS eliminating the chief executive position at Airbus and taking over direct control of the aircraft maker, a source close to the matter has said.

Any changes would have to be adopted by the EADS board of directors, which is scheduled to meet on July 13. But the session could be brought forward to approve modifications, sources said.

EADS shares have since their crash earlier this month re-gained some ground, but on Tuesday they had again fallen, losing 2.51 percent at 22.18 euros in early afternoon trading on the Paris CAC 40 exchange.