Will Reduce Subcontractors By 80 Percent

The cuts continue at European planemaker Airbus... which announced Monday it plans to slash the number of subcontractors used by the company by as much as 80 percent.

The move is the latest in Airbus's vast restructuring plan aimed at reducing costs. Airbus currently has nearly 3,000 subcontractors that supply components for the manufacturer's planes. The Toulouse-based planemaker wants to reduce that number to about 500... and pare down the number of design centers and shipping facilities from 80, to between four and eight.

"I can confirm the number of suppliers that will be cut, but for the time being I do not have any information on who will be cut and how the cuts will be made," said an Airbus spokesman.

But even that's not all. The London Times reports Airbus also hopes to slash its administrative costs by over $1 billion through 2010... and cut supply costs by $380 million dollars over the same period.

All this comes as the planemaker says it needs to sell 420 A380 superjumbos just to break even on the mammoth airliner. That number rose from 270 after the latest of three delays to the program was announced in September.

FMI: www.airbus.com