AIRBUS

Airbus

Airbus

1. Introduction:

Airbus is a leading aircraft manufacturer that consistently captures around half of all orders for airliners with more than 100 seats. Our product line-up, which covers a full spectrum of 12 aircraft models from a 100-seat single-aisle to the largest civil airliner ever, the double-deck A380, defines the scope of our core business.

MISSION:" Our mission is to provide the aircraft best suited to the market's needs and to support these aircraft with the highest quality of service."

Airbus was established in 1970 as a European consortium of French, German and later, Spanish and U.K companies, as it became clear that only by co-operating would European aircraft manufacturers be able to compete effectively with the U.S. giants. By overcoming national divides, sharing development costs, collaborating in the interests of a greater market share, and even agreeing a common set of measurements and a common language, Airbus changed the face of the business, and brought airlines, passengers and crews the benefits of real competition.

In 2001, thirty years after its creation, Airbus formally became a single integrated company, thus passing another major milestone in its history of achievements. The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), (resulting from the merger between Aerospatiale Matra SA of France, Daimler Chrysler Aerospace AG of Germany and Construcciones Aeronauticas SA of Spain), and BAE SYSTEMS of the UK, transferred all of their Airbus-related assets to the newly incorporated company and, in exchange, became shareholders in Airbus with 80 per cent and 20 per cent respectively of the new stock.

The co-operation between the different entities that make up Airbus today goes back to the 1920s. Construcciones Aeronauticas S.A. (CASA) of Spain built seaplanes under licence from German company Dornier and worked with the French on the Bréguet XIX. Then in the 1950s, a number of Franco-German aviation projects saw the light of day. The 1960s saw the first real co-operative effort between French and German aircraft manufacturers on the Transall, followed by the Concorde adventure between the French and the British.

The co-operation between the different entities that make up Airbus today goes back to the 1920s. Construcciones Aeronauticas S.A. (CASA) of Spain built seaplanes under licence from German company Dornier and worked with the French on the Bréguet XIX. Then in the 1950s, a number of Franco-German aviation projects saw the light of day. The 1960s saw the first real co-operative effort between French and German aircraft manufacturers on the Transall, followed by the Concorde adventure between the French and the British.

This was also a time of close contacts between CASA and Messerschmidt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB). MBB formed the core of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) in 1989 and then CASA, Dasa and Aerospatiale Matra S.A. together formed EADS in 2000.

The Airbus GIE (or Groupement d'Intérêt Economique), a form of consortium under French law, was officially created at the end of 1970 to establish a formal co-operation among the GIE's partners and to provide a single sales, marketing and support interface for Airbus ...