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Airbus chief resigns

09/10/2006

The chief executive of troubled aircraft manufacturing firm Airbus has resigned after a week of boardroom negotiations and several days of intense media speculation.

Christian Streiff has left the developers of the A380 superjumbo jets just four months after joining the firm in June.

Parent company EADS, which owns four-fifths of Airbus, confirmed in a statement this evening that Mr Streiff has been replaced by Louis Gallois, himself already joint chief executive officer of the aerospace group.

The former Saint-Gobain chief executive is believed to have left after failing to convince the EADS board to grant him far-reaching restructuring powers as part of his sweeping reforms designed to minimise the effect of further delays to the A380.

Today's statement from EADS said the new management team represented a "simple and more effective" solution.

EADS has already expressed its intention to acquire the remaining fifth of Airbus, which has sold almost 160 of the much-vaunted A380s to airlines across the world.

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