Faced with a mounting number of Airbus deferral requests from struggling airlines, Airbus said it may have to take legal action against some airlines.
The European aircraft manufacturer maintains that lawsuits would be a last resort but warned that airlines that do not compromise will be held to their order commitments.
CEO Guillaume Faury told Politico some airlines are not returning calls to Airbus.
"We always try to find a different route than going to court. But if and when airlines – and it’s happening – have no other choice than fully defaulting and not proposing something better than nothing, or are not willing to do it, then [lawsuits] will happen," he said.
Faury says the Covid-19 global crisis means Airbus is forced to ‘rebuild our business almost from scratch.’
Airbus has cut production by a third.
Faury wants the EU to step in with rebates to help European airlines renew their aircraft fleets, ttying it to a new ‘green’ revolution for the industry.
"There is a lower level of demand so we need less planes, so let’s retire the old planes, the ones which are burning a lot of fuel and raising a lot of CO2 and support the faster transition to new planes by a support scheme — and we think there’s a good business case for doing this for Europe," Faury said.
