CEO Noel Forgeard says Airbus has achieved its three strategic objectives

Airbus has achieved the three strategic goals set by its shareholders and Chief Executive Officer Noel Forgeard when he was appointed to head the company three years ago: to consolidate and extend Airbus' market success on a world-wide basis, to expand the aircraft product line, and to transform Airbus into a single integrated entity.

"The pace of change at Airbus has been so great that it is sometimes easy to forget just how far we have come," Forgeard told international reporters at a Le Bourget press conference. "The objectives set by our shareholders three years ago have been attained, business is on track and major new programmes have been launched and are being run under sound conditions."

Since 1998, Airbus said it had steadily increased its world-wide presence. Thanks to its diverse product line, the company had captured roughly half of the world market, and expanded its customer base with key new operators.

"We have successfully developed our business in many places," Forgeard told a standing-room-only audience at the press conference. "Since the beginning of 1998, we have proudly welcomed more than 30 new customers, including British Airways, SAS and Qantas."

Airbus also had achieved its goal of broadening the product line, which now covered a complete range from the 107-seat A318 to the 550-seat A380.

"The A318 and A380 define the scope of Airbus' business," Forgeard said. "The A318 programme's development budget has encountered no problems and market acceptance is strong. The A380 is a real aircraft, with 62 firm orders from 8 customers as well as roughly 50 options to its credit."

Forgeard noted that the first A318 would enter its final assembly in Hamburg this August, and was on track for a first flight early next year followed by service entry in late 2002. For the A380, the development programme was also on schedule. The technical definition phase was underway, and the A380's basic cabin architecture should be finalised this summer, leading to the selection of interior styling soon after. Work allocations also were moving ahead, and more than half of all the subcontracted work would be placed by the end of next month.

His third challenge, Forgeard said, was to transition Airbus to its status as a fully integrated company with 44,000 employees around the world. The creation of the new Airbus was announced last June, and operations as a fully integrated company began almost immediately.

"Airbus today is a solidly profitable company with a reported contribution of 1.4 billion Euros to EADS' EBIT in the year 2000 and I am committed to exceeding a 10 per cent EBIT margin by 2004," Forgeard said. "Last year, Airbus invested more than 6 per cent of its revenues in research and development, and we will have roughly trebled our production rate between 1997 and 2002."

In 2001, Airbus expected to book a total of between 350 and 400 aircraft sales, meeting its objective for the year, even with the world-wide economic slowdown.

"All our objectives in terms of profit and cash flow will be met," John Leahy, executive vice president customer affairs, said. "The ramp-up in production for Airbus' single-aisle A318/A319/A320/A321 family is continuing unabated to the rate of 30 per month by 2003, and the widebody A330/A340 rate will also increase to eight per month during the same period."

Looking to the future, Forgeard said Airbus would continue improving its customer support services to meet the goal of becoming the best in delivering customer satisfaction. "To reach this target, a consistent strategy is being developed and implemented on a company-wide basis to ensure Airbus is, and always be in a position to address all airline needs, rapidly and to the highest standard of their expectations."

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