European aerospace company EADS, soon to be renamed Airbus after its better-known offspring, will mount a fresh push for aviation business for its Australian subsidiary, chief executive Tom Enders says.
Mr Enders, in Australia to present the Sir Reginald Ansett Memorial Lecture at the Safeskies aviation conference in Canberra this week, said EADS defence business in Australia started at zero 12 years ago.
Then it won three big contracts, for new transport and reconnaissance helicopters through its subsidiary Australian Aerospace, and for tanker aircraft through Airbus Military in Spain.
In the same period, Airbus civil aircraft business rose from 13 per cent of large aircraft used by commercial airlines in Australia to about 50 per cent now.
Mr Enders is not expecting more big defence contracts for some time.
'That means we need to put more emphasis on product support and the services business,' he told reporters on Tuesday.
Australian Aerospace is now performing work on aircraft support and maintenance as well as helicopters.
'We will try to leverage the industrial presence through Australian Aerospace also for the rest of our defence and space business, particularly the new division we are building Airbus Defence and Space,' he said.
The impending name change emerged after the aborted merger of EADS and British company BAE which prompted a wide-ranging review of corporate governance and shareholding structure.
One consequence is that no European government now has any direct influence on company operations.
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