A380

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) Company has confirmed plans to reorganise itself into three divisions and change its name to the globally recognised Airbus brand in a bid to become more competitive.

This development follows a strategy review by the EADS in the recent months, which paved the way for two important board decisions.

Firstly, the consortium plans to integrate Airbus Military, Astrium and Cassidian into one Defence and Space Division.

The consortium then plans to enhance integration and cohesion by renaming the group and its divisions using the globally recognised Airbus brand.

The Airbus Group will comprise three divisions: Airbus, responsible for all commercial aircraft activities; Airbus Defence & Space, which will involve in defence and space activities including Military Transport Aircraft; and Airbus Helicopters, comprising all commercial and military helicopter activities.

The changes will start from January 2014 and are set to be completed in the second half of the year.

"The renaming simply gathers the entire company under the best brand we have, one that stands for internationalisation, innovation and integration, and also for some two thirds of our revenues."

EADS chief executive officer Tom Enders said: "The renaming simply gathers the entire company under the best brand we have, one that stands for internationalisation, innovation and integration, and also for some two thirds of our revenues."

The company announced these plans as part of the its second quarter results, EADS reported a 14% increase in net profit to €518m during the period

EADS stated that in the first six months of 2013, Airbus Commercial logged 722 aircraft orders, compared with 230 orders in the same period in 2012.

In addition, the company raised the order target for its Airbus division for 2013 by 25% to more than 1,000 aircraft. However, it stated that due to lower A380 deliveries, the group revenues are expected to have moderate growth for the full year.

Image: EADS expects moderate growth in full year revenues due to lower A380 deliveries. Photo: courtesy of Fixion / Airbus SAS.

Defence Technology