Both Take Fall For A380 Delays

The drama surrounding the leadership of both Airbus and its parent company EADS came to a head over the weekend, as EADS co-CEO Noel Forgeard (above right) and Airbus chief Gustav Humbert -- both embroiled in scandal over delays in the A380 project -- both quit.

"The recently announced delay on the A380 production and delivery program has been a major disappointment for our customers, our shareholders and our employees," said Mr. Humbert in a prepared statement, reported by the BBC. "As president and chief executive of Airbus, I must take responsibility for this setback and feel the right course of action is to offer my resignation to our shareholders."

As ANN reported last week, Louis Gallois has been tapped to replace Forgeard. Frenchman Christian Strieff will replace Humbert (below right) at the controls of Airbus.

Both men will try to bring EADS and its subsidiary out of a financial nosedive that started when Airbus announced the second major delay in deliveries of the superjumbo jet -- this one blamed on wiring issues.

Forgeard and other EADS executives are under investigation for dumping their company stock back in March, two months before public talk of a second delay in the A380 program surfaced.

Although formal charges of insider trading have not been established, both the German and French governments are looking into the fact that the executives got out at just the right time... and made money. A lot of investors have ridden the wreckage all the way down, though, as shares in EADS are off 25-percent from what they were just four months ago.

"This is a strong decisive move which is bound to reinspire confidence," said Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia to Bloomberg. "They need to regain the confidence of investors and customers. It's going to be a difficult road but this is a good start."

 There's still a plane to redesign -- again -- the A350. And there's still shaken investors and rattled customers to placate.

Interstingly... talk of restructuring the management structure of EADS appears to have fallen by the wayside in all the brouhaha. In company dispatches Sunday, there was no mention of doing away with the current co-chairmanship... where a Frenchman and a German control the company.

Instead... the names have changed... but the structure remains the same.

FMI: www.eads.com, www.airbus.com