PARIS--Airbus rolled out a leaner new structure on Monday, completing a recent merger between its parent company and its dominant planemaking arm, and including a shift in the reporting line for its key commercial sales team to group CEO Tom Enders.
That move, which confirmed a Reuters report, raised concerns among some insiders and customers about a possible power struggle with long-standing airplanes boss Fabrice Bregier, though Airbus denied any tensions.
Cementing changes first outlined last year, the "one Airbus" reorganisation involves a single headquarters in Toulouse, France, with Bregier confirmed as group-wide chief operating officer and president of commercial aircraft. "We need to become more integrated, more collaborative and less bureaucratic for speedier decision-making and execution," Enders said in a letter to employees.
The revamp, which saves hundreds of millions of euros in overheads, is designed to complete a decade-long drive to turn the former European consortium - with a history of strong French and German government influence - into a more normal company, and prepare for digital innovations sweeping through industry.
But in an unexpected adjustment reported by Reuters on Friday, Airbus said its commercial sales team, best known for contesting leadership of the jet market with Boeing, would now report directly to Enders and by-pass Bregier. That decision is seen as sensitive because it revisits a power-sharing deal between the German Enders and Frenchman Bregier that initially gave the latter responsibility over all planemaking activities.
Enders said in his commercial aircraft role, Bregier would lead programmes, support and services, engineering, manufacturing, procurement and quality. "However, due to the heavy operational challenges in our largest revenue-driving business, and to slightly rebalance our internal burden-sharing, I will lead sales and marketing," he said in his letter.
The decision sent tremors though the commercial arm and raised questions over the future of Bregier, an industrial and marketing heavyweight whose ties to Enders are seen as key to Airbus's ability to smooth output and face a resurgent Boeing. "People are very surprised. There is no doubt that this is an important step," a person close to the company said.
A jet financier expressed "surprise" at the move, given well-established relations between many airlines and Bregier. Other critics said the sudden move reflected a heavy-handed new management style or risked being perceived as a weakening of French interests.
"It is creating a culture in which people will go back to 'Germans versus French' and people having to choose which camp they are in. It is not good for morale or the culture of the company," said a person with detailed knowledge of the group.
An Airbus spokesman called it a routine internal matter of reporting lines, as with any normal company.
