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| Europe |
| France’s Chirac Insists on European A400M Engine. |
| 2003-05-01 |
| French President Jacques Chirac told German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at a defense summit in Brussels he will only accept a European engine for the planned A400M military transport plane, Handelsblatt said. Airbus SAS, the world's No. 2 planemaker, which will build the aircraft, delayed a decision on whether to order the engines from United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney Canada unit or its European rival group led by Snecma SA and Rolls-Royce Plc after Chirac's intervention, the German business daily reported. The offer by the group involving Snecma, France's state- controlled engine maker and a key supplier to Airbus, is about 235 million euros ($265 million) more expensive than Pratt & Whitney's, Handelsblatt said. Seven countries, including France, Germany and the U.K., plan to buy 180 of the transport planes costing at least $80 million each. Picking the engine maker is the last step before the countries give the formal go-ahead for Airbus to start building. The A400M is scheduled to begin service in about 2008. |
| Posted by:ISHMAIL |