FRANKFURT, July 1 (Reuters) – Growing fears over the strength of Germany’s consumer recovery could hamper efforts by Metro (MEOG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), the country’s largest listed retailer, to offload its Kaufhof department stores and Real hypermarkets.

Metro has long been looking for a way out of its Kaufhof and Real businesses to focus on opprtunities offered by emerging markets at its cash & carry and MediaMarkt-Saturn electronics businesses.

Disposals are now back on the agenda after the group said it was in informal talks over their future. [ID:nLDE75Q0G6]

The biggest problem when it comes to finding a buyer is the two units’ exposure to their home market. Kaufhof is virtually unheard of outside of Germany, while Real gets two thirds of its sales from Germany.

While Germany is Europe’s strongest economy, it does not offer the growth rates of emerging markets such as Russia and China, where Metro is driving expansion of its cash & carry outlets and MediaMarkt-Saturn stores.

In addition, German retailers’ good start to the year may be losing steam. Despite low unemployment and predicted economic growth of 3.3 percent this year, retail sales fell unexpectedly in May, though economists said an E.coli outbreak that led to a drop in food sales was a major factor. [ID:nLDE75T08M]

One banking source said Metro was looking at floating Kaufhof due to a lack of suitable buyers, adding an initial public offering would take many months.

LE BOURGET, France, June 23 (Reuters) – Airbus has won a record-breaking order for 200 of its A320neo jets from AirAsia , capping a week where it has trounced rival Boeing in the fierce competition for plane contracts.

The massive contract is a show of force from Europe’s Airbus as it battles Boeing in the market for single-aisle jets – currently its A320 versus Boeing’s 737 — which is expected to be worth $2 trillion over the next 20 years.

The A320neo is a version of Airbus’s best-selling 15-seat passenger jet offering fuel savings with new engines from 2015 and will heap pressure on Boeing to take a decision to either rework its current offering or come up with something new.

The deal wrapped up a frenetic biennial air show which demonstrated a shift in the balance of power in the industry. AirAsia and IndiGo are now Airbus’s first and second largest airline customers, lagging only the U.S. leasing giants ILFC and GECAS , and pushing Lufthansa into third place as an Airbus operator by fleet size.

“The runaway success of the neo exceeds Airbus’ expectations and it had to do the same with Boeing,” said aviation analyst Scott Hamilton.

“This increases the pressure on Boeing severalfold to get moving with a decision to re-engine or do a new plane.”

As champagne and calculators all but ran out, industry records were sent clattering like an airport departure board.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Airbus put on a show of force at the Paris Air Show on Wednesday, securing a $16 billion deal for 180 aircraft from India’s IndiGo and saying more deals were near, leaving rival Boeing in the shade.

The European planemaker, a unit of EADS, is expected to deal another blow to its U.S. rival by securing a $17 billion agreement with Malaysia’s AirAsia for up to 200 of its revamped A320neo family of aircraft on Thursday.

“We are having a very strong show and we are very pleased with the response to the neo program: it’s overwhelming,” said Airbus sales chief John Leahy.

“We have sold 727 neo so far. There is a possibility that we will be at 1,000 by the end of the show.”

Indian budget carrier IndiGo ordered 180 Airbus planes — 150 A320neo jets and 30 of the classic variant — a record in terms of numbers and the biggest boost to date for the A320neo as higher oil prices push airlines to seek more fuel-efficient aircraft.

“The big orders are coming from the non-mature countries with the airlines going where the cash is — it’s all part of the continuing shift in economic power from west to east,” said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at UK brokerage BGC Partners.

Another boost for the A320neo came via U.S.-based Republic Airways, who signed a letter of intent to buy 80 of the revamped jets worth around $7 billion.

LE BOURGET, France, June 22 (Reuters) – European airlines, biofuel producers and the EU Commission signed up on Wednesday to produce 2 million tonnes of biofuel for aviation by 2020 even as debate rages over how green such fuels actually are.

Airlines are keen to use biofuels as a way of cutting down on pollution from jet fuel but the use of food crops, such as palm oil, in their production has come under fire for taking land that could be used to grow food to feed people.

A report by 10 international agencies including the World Bank and World Trade Organization earlier this month said governments should scrap policies to support biofuels, because they are forcing up global food prices.

Involved in the project signed on Wednesday are planemaker Airbus , airlines Air France-KLM , British Airways and Lufthansa and biofuel producers including Neste Oil .

Aware of the debate surrounding first-generation biofuels, participants at the Paris air show were keen to show a focus on what they feel are more sustainable crops.

Lufthansa says jatropha is its crop of choice and plans to trial a biofuel mix on flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg for six months once certification has been received.

Under a deal with Neste, the mix it uses can be produced from palm oil but biofuels director Joachim Buse told Reuters there was a process to replace palm oil with other sources.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – A visit to the Paris Air Show by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, more exhibition space than ever and demonstrations of its Sukhoi airliner — Russia is getting serious about challenging the dominance of Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Airbus (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

With exhibition space at 1,700 square metres, the Russian Federation is one of the 10 largest national participants at this year’s Paris air show, highlighting its desire to make a mark.

State-owned United Aircraft Corp UAC.L, which owns Sukhoi, believes it can become a serious third player in the commercial market by 2025, pinning its hopes on its mid-sized MS-21/MC-21 airliner.

“We are here to convince our customers, our potential customers, that we are capable of all these targets that we put in front of us,” UAC Chairman Mikhail Pogosyan said at the Paris Air Show.

His colleague Alexey Fedorov, president of Sukhoi unit Irkut, said: “Any new planes from Airbus and Boeing won’t come until around 2020, so we feel the MC-21 will enable us to take a good share of the market and compete well with them”.

Sukhoi also announced the launch of a business jet version of the regional SuperJet 100.

Moscow is pushing for Russian companies to raise their spending in research and development as the government seeks to modernise and diversify the economy away from energy and other resources.

LE BOURGET, France, June 20 (Reuters) – European nations on Monday defended a system of state loans for planemaker Airbus and broached the controversial subject of support for the future A350, but Boeing warned that any aid must be on commercial terms.

Ministers responsible for aerospace in Britain, France, Germany and Spain met on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show in line with their tradition since these nations founded Airbus, now owned by EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The World Trade Organization has ruled that past uses of the loans were subsidies that broke global trading rules.

Appeal judges last month cleared Europe of providing the most aggressive type of aid known as prohibited export subsidies, but said Airbus did receive billions of dollars of unfair aid that harmed Boeing. [ID:nLDE74H21N]

Mark Prisk, Britain’s minister for business and enterprise, defended government funding for Airbus at a time when steep spending cuts are being imposed in some European countries.

“It’s something which is clearly beneficial and has shown important returns for the taxpayer,” he told journalists.

Washington has not ruled out filing a new trade complaint if Airbus reverts to the system of government funding for the A350.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Airbus and Boeing were set to announce several billion dollars’ worth of plane orders on Monday as industry heavyweight Qatar Airways leaped in to kickstart a rain-sodden opening to the Paris Air Show.

The Gulf carrier placed an order for six Boeing 777-300ER wide-body jets worth $1.7 billion at list prices, a day after Airbus unveiled plans to boost the range of the future competing A350, of which Qatar is the biggest customer.

The deal was expected to be the highlight of day one of the world’s biggest aviation event as Airbus keeps its powder dry on major deals it hopes to announce later in the week, some of which hang on tough last-minute negotiations.

Airbus was, however, expected to report an order on Monday for 30 A320neo planes worth some $2.4 billion at list prices to Scandinavian airline SAS.

The European planemaker has targeted an order surge worth tens of billions of dollars, but was left reeling on the eve of the air show by a series of mishaps including a taxiway collision involving an A380 superjumbo.

The right-hand wing-tip of a test plane for the world’s largest jetliner, with a wingspan of almost 80 meters, scraped a building at Le Bourget airport on Sunday and was withdrawn from the air show’s traditional flying displays.

The aircraft was hidden out of sight on Monday as President Nicolas Sarkozy inaugurated the biennial event.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Airbus and Boeing were set to announce several billion dollars’ worth of plane orders on Monday as industry heavyweight Qatar Airways leaped in to kickstart a rain-sodden opening to the Paris Air Show.

The Gulf carrier placed an order for six Boeing (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 777-300ER wide-body jets worth $1.7 billion at list prices, a day after Airbus unveiled plans to boost the range of the future competing A350, of which Qatar is the biggest customer.

The deal was expected to be the highlight of day one of the world’s biggest aviation event as Airbus (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) keeps its powder dry on major deals it hopes to announce later in the week, some of which hang on tough last-minute negotiations.

Airbus was, however, expected to report an order on Monday for 30 A320neo planes worth some $2.4 billion at list prices to Scandinavian airline SAS (SAS.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The European planemaker has targeted an order surge worth tens of billions of dollars, but was left reeling on the eve of the air show by a series of mishaps including a taxiway collision involving an A380 superjumbo.

The right-hand wing-tip of a test plane for the world’s largest jetliner, with a wingspan of almost 80 meters (yards), scraped a building at Le Bourget airport on Sunday and was withdrawn from the air show’s traditional flying displays.

The aircraft was hidden out of sight on Monday as President Nicolas Sarkozy inaugurated the biennial event.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Fancy travelling from Paris to Tokyo in two and a half hours? Do you yearn for the Concorde days?

Aerospace group EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), owner of planemaker Airbus, thinks it has the answer — a hypersonic jet that flies above the atmosphere, yet takes off from a regular runway.

“It is not a Concorde but it looks like a Concorde, showing that aerodynamics of the 1960s were very smart,” Jean Botti, EADS’ chief technical officer, said.

By flying above the atmosphere and using biofuel to get the plane off the ground initially, the group hopes to avoid the supersonic boom and pollution Concorde was notorious for.

“When you are above the atmosphere nobody hears anything,” Botti said.

The plane, being developed in collaboration with Japan, is being primarily designed with the business market in mind and could carry 50-100 passengers.

The concept project, known as ZEHST (zero emission high speed transport), comes as companies such as Virgin Galactic push forward with plans to take paying customers up on commercial space flights. Indeed, ZEHST is being developed using research from EADS’ space arm Astrium.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Fancy traveling from Paris to Tokyo in less than three hours? Do you yearn for the Concorde days?

Aerospace group EADS, owner of planemaker Airbus, thinks it has come up with the answer — a hypersonic jet that flies above the atmosphere yet still takes off from a regular runway. “It is not a Concorde but it looks like a Concorde, showing that aerodynamics of the 1960s were already very smart,” Jean Botti, EADS Chief Technical officer said.

By flying above the atmosphere and using biofuel to get the plane off the ground initially, the group hopes to avoid the supersonic boom and pollution Concorde was notorious for.

“When you are above the atmosphere nobody hears anything,” Botti said.

The plane, being developed in collaboration with Japan, is being primarily designed with the business market in mind and could carry 50 to 100 passengers.

The concept project, known as ZEHST (zero emission high speed transport), comes as companies like Virgin Galactic push forward with plans to take paying customers up on commercial space flights. Indeed, the ZEHST is being developed using research from EADS space arm Astrium.

Unlike those Virgin Galactic customers, EADS says the ZEHST would have a maximum acceleration of 1.2g, meaning passengers will not need any training in order to fly.