George Trefgarne

A superjumbo-sized monument to Euro-folly

George Trefgarne says that no well-run company would have risked its capital on the ill-starred A380 — but then Airbus is not so much a business as a political symbol

Jacques Chirac hit the nail on the head in 2002 when he opened a factory making components for the Airbus A380. The aircraft was, he said, ‘A symbol of what Europe can achieve.’ I could not put it better myself. As the vast 550-seat superjumbo wowed the crowd at Farnborough Air Show this week, there was no mistaking its significance. Conceived by French and German politicians; bureaucratic, expensive and dogged by scandal — the A380 is indeed a wonderful monument to the European Union.

In fact, so short is this engineering marvel on market logic that there is a small but distinct risk that it could bring down not only Airbus and its Franco–German parent company EADS, but the struggling premiership of the bouffant-haired Dominique de Villepin. There have already been some nasty scenes in the French parliament. And if that is not enough, Airbus could even ignite a vicious transatlantic trade war.

How appropriate, then, that Labour has got its fingerprints all over this Dome-with-wings. The DTI has spent the past four years trumpeting the government’s involvement, not least the provision of £780 million of launch aid to Airbus and engine-maker Rolls-Royce, in the form of ‘soft’ loans at below-market interest rates. Airbus is also the biggest customer of the Export Credits Guarantee Department, a quango which underwrites export orders. Last year it underwrote orders for 50 aircraft, a third of all its business. Airlines often go bust, which means the ECGD can suddenly find itself in possession of aircraft: according to its latest report and accounts it is now looking for buyers for 10 planes, though it does not reveal how many are Airbuses. Not content with that, Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, plans to appoint a director to the EADS board to ‘safeguard’ Britain’s interests. That, of course, is another characteristic of a Euro-project: the desire of successive British governments to jump on the careering bandwagon.

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