AIRBUS LOSING REMAINING A380 CARGO ORDER

March 2, 2007 (Forbes/AP) - Airbus was left with an empty order book for the cargo version of its much-delayed superjumbo plane after UPS Inc. said it would cancel its order for 10 A380s. The move comes just a week after UPS, the world's largest shipping carrier, and Airbus announced a revised agreement that gave either party the right to terminate the order.

In a statement Friday, Atlanta-based UPS (nyse: UPS - news - people ) said it decided to cancel after it learned Airbus was diverting employees from the freighter program to work on its passenger plane program. UPS spokesman Mark Giuffre:

We lost confidence in their ability to meet [the revised agreement] schedules.

... Shares of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. had already been tumbling on the freighter program freeze, announced late Thursday. The stock ended the day down 4 percent at 23.63 euros ($31.23) in Paris trading.

The A380 setback came as French unions called for a one-day strike next Tuesday to protest 10,000 planned job cuts and the sale or closure of six Airbus plants under the "Power8" restructuring plan unveiled by Chief Executive Louis Gallois Wednesday.

There is no crisis in French business management that cannot be solved by a French labor strike. And there is no French labor solution that cannot be smoothed out with a smidge more of French state "aid".

FRANCE OFFERS $132M IN AID TO AIRBUS

March 1, 2007 (Forbes/AP) - France stepped up Thursday with euro100 million ($132 million) in new financial support [scil., subsidy] for Airbus, even as the EU transport commissioner urged less state interference in the ailing European plane maker.

... Earlier, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot called for the plane maker to be free of "political interference." Speaking on Europe-1 radio, Barrot:

We are paying the high price of bad governance, with the involvement of several governments, instead of having confidence in the company.

But Airbus is not a real company managed by competitive business practices. It is an elaborate multi-national jobs program.

IMAGINE THE FUN AND GAMES AT AIRBUS

March 3, 2007 (Globe and Mail) - Business in Europe isn't like business as regular folk in the rest of the world understand it, though. If it were, you wouldn't end up with Airbus. ... Imagine the fun and games of running an airplane maker that employs more than 56,000 people in four different countries. For example, you make the wings in Britain, the fuselage in Germany, the tail in Spain and all the pretty-looking fiddly bits like the champagne cooler in France. While all this is going on, you field weekly calls from the prime minister of each nation just to make sure you're respecting their hard-working lads' right to an hourly beer-and-cigarettes break.

Finally, you try to fit all the parts together. Voilà! No wonder the wires don't work and you have to tell your global customers there's going to be a slight delay while Henri, Sergio, Klaus and Gary consult the instruction manual.

You can follow Pave's ongoing Airbus series posts here, here, here, here, here (with backgrounder), here, here, here, here, here -- and this.

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