EU OKs Airbus Integrated Co. to Rival Boeing

The European Commission on Wednesday approved the creation of Airbus Integrated Co., clearing the way for the Toulouse, France-based plane maker to become a more efficient competitor to U.S. rival Boeing Co.

AIC will manage the aircraft operations of EADS, which owns 80% of the group, and BAE Systems, which holds the remaining 20%.

Both BAE Systems and EADS, under a deal announced in June, will contribute all their Airbus assets and activities to the new company.

The creation of EADS--formed from the merger of Germany’s DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, France’s Aerospatiale Matra and Spain’s Casa--laid the groundwork for that deal.

Executives of EADS confirmed that AIC was expected to begin operating at the start of 2001.

EADS and BAE coordinate their Airbus activities through Airbus Industries, a consortium formed under French law in 1967.

The establishment of Airbus Integrated Co. will enable the parties to bring their activities under a single management--a move designed to cut down on the inefficiencies associated with the consortium.

Under that structure, decision-making has been decentralized among the British, French, German and Spanish shareholders in Airbus, each of whom manufacture a different part of the plane.

The change comes at a crucial point in its heated rivalry with Boeing. Airbus is close to launching its 555-seat super-jumbo A3XX aircraft, a plane it hopes will end Boeing’s monopoly of the large aircraft segment.

The European Commission said Wednesday that the creation of AIC “raised no concerns with respect to material and immediate vertical effects on the markets for product suppliers to Airbus programs.”