PARIS (Reuters) – When it comes to selling jets to domestic U.S. airlines, Boeing may just have lost the precious ability to make the crucial “last phone call,” according to the sales chief of its rival Airbus.

John Leahy, a determined New Yorker who helped make Airbus the world’s largest civil jetmaker, forged his career by winning over the boards of U.S. carriers but failed to win the same market success in his homeland as he did globally.

TIANJIN, China, June 14 (Reuters) – Three years after it bet
heavily on China by opening its first assembly line outside
Europe, Airbus has entered talks in a bid to extend production
beyond 2016, offering airlines a chance to buy a locally
assembled version of a future revamped jet.

The move comes as a trade row grows between Beijing and
Brussels over European Union plans to tackle carbon emissions by
foreign airlines – a move Airbus says led to the suspension of
long-distance jet orders worth up to $14 billion.

BEIJING, June 11 (Reuters) – Boeing reeled off
targets including an unusual pledge to sell 1,000 jets this year
– putting it on course to recover leadership of the $100
billion global jet market amid growing tensions with its rival
Airbus.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Jim Albaugh told
Reuters that Boeing was targeting 1,000 plane orders for the
year, up from 921 in 2011 when Boeing sank to its lowest share
against Airbus when it hesitated over a key product decision.

BEIJING (Reuters) – American Airlines still plans to exit bankruptcy at the end of this year but is not concentrating on a merger currently despite pressure from unions to forge a combination with US Airways, American’s chief executive said on Monday.

“We are not focused on a merger. Right now we are focused on a successful restructuring,” CEO Tom Horton said on the sidelines of an industry meeting.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Airlines have urged Western governments to do more to improve safety in Africa, and accused the European Union of failing to grasp the continent’s needs by banning dozens of carriers.

The head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents most major airlines, said a list of operators banned from the EU included several that are safe, that and the EU failed to aid others needing practical help.

BEIJING, June 10 (Reuters) – A summer battle for orders is
underway in the global jet industry, which gathers in Beijing on
Sunday for the first of two crucial events in two months,
pitting the world’s largest planemakers against each other in a
race for deals worth $50 billion at catalogue prices.

The potential deals span all continents and every pattern of
powered flight from the largest airliners to warplanes and
luxury business jets, shielding aerospace workers from the worst
effects of a slowdown spreading from Europe’s debt crisis.

PARIS/BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) – By thinking of applying
for a banking licence, EADS is dusting off a plan once
designed to make it look as powerful as U.S. behemoth General
Electric Co – but which in today’s crisis just looks
attractive as a way of safeguarding its cash.

Departing Chief Financial Officer Hans Peter Ring surprised
European finance and industry last week by floating the prospect
that the world’s second largest aerospace group could transform
itself into a bank. The reason? The Airbus parent is now more
creditworthy than some of its crisis-hit lenders.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Fresh fears over the global economy could unravel the benefit of cheaper oil prices and keep a lid on financial forecasts for the airline industry when its chiefs gather in China this weekend for their annual summit.

An eight percent drop in oil prices this year has delivered a quick fix to an industry severely damaged by record fuel costs – but the main reasons for the drop, Europe’s debt crisis and a slowdown in China’s economy, cast a shadow over its recovery.

PARIS, June 5 (Reuters) – Legendary French banker Antoine
Bernheim, a master of high European finance and a fixture at
companies from Christian Dior to Le Monde, died on Tuesday, aged
87.

His death was announced by Vincent Bollore, another French
entrepreneur who was his frequent ally in boardroom battles at
Italian insurer Generali, where Bernheim ended up serving as
chairman for nearly a decade.

AL AIN, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) – Ross Bradley welcomes a delegation of aerospace suppliers in from the blistering heat of the Arabian desert and cools them down with some refreshingly candid advice.

“You are too expensive. Please take this message back. We will not put up with prices we are paying today. Unaffordable.”