Airbus to Decide Friday on New Airplane Project

Western Europe’s Airbus Industrie will decide Friday whether to go ahead with its new A321 plane, even though the consortium’s four partners cannot agree on where to build it.

The new aircraft--a stretched version of the successful high-technology A320--has already won 87 orders and 66 options before the program’s official launch.

An Airbus spokeswoman said the new aircraft would be discussed at Friday’s meeting of the five-member supervisory board. In June, Airbus Chairman Jean Pierson said the new plane would have to have at least 40 firm orders before the program could go ahead.

France’s Aerospatiale and Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm of West Germany each have a 38% stake in Airbus. British Aerospace has 20%, and Spain’s CASA has 4%.

The company has enjoyed considerable success since it was established in the early 1970s and is now a serious rival to U.S. manufacturers McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, taking about 30% of civilian airliner orders in the non-communist world.

The current row between France and West Germany over the location of a future plant is a product of that very success.

At present, all Airbus planes are assembled in the southwestern French city of Toulouse from components built in the four partners’ countries.

France and West Germany have commissioned an independent report on the dispute.