A bumpy ride for Airbus at Franco-German talks?

The management of Airbus and its parent company EADS could be split up between France and Germany at a crucial summit later today. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to tell French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at their meeting at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, that she would be in favour of one nationality running EADS on its own if the other nationality was at the head of Airbus.

At the moment EADS is co-run by France’s Louis Gallois and Germany’s Tom Enders. But she also stressed that the companies had to be run along corporate and not political lines. The aim behind today’s talks is to simplify how decisions are made within the company, of which the French government owns 15%.

The cumbersome dual management structure is blamed for many of Airbus’ present troubles which has led to the axing of 10,000 jobs across Europe, mostly in Germany and France. Delays in the superjumbo project revealed management errors.

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