Airbus obsessives have a shaky grasp of history

Suddenly, everyone wants to be like Airbus. In recent months, Renault, CEO Luca de Meo has called for an “Airbus of autos” to face down the threat, opens new tab to European carmakers from Chinese electric vehicles. In March, the boss of German utility E.ON was fielding questions about the merits of a pan-European mega-utility that could be the “Airbus of energy”. Military specialists antsy about Europe’s highly fragmented defence industry have even been pondering an “Airbus of defence”. That raises two questions – what this outbreak of sloganising actually means; and whether any of the new Airbus obsessives know the full extent of its tortuous back story.

https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/airbus-obsessives-have-shaky-grasp-history-2024-04-09/