Installed in July, Mr. Streiff had planned to turnaround Airbus and recover market share, centred on a new efficiency drive to save €5bn over the four years to 2010 to mitigate A380 losses, and €2bn a year thereafter.
He aimed to cut overheads by 30 per cent and raise productivity among its 90,000 staff by a fifth. Steep job losses looked inevitable at a company that had never previously pared its workforce in its 36-year history. The severity of his blueprint spooked politicians and workers in Germany, which faced the brunt of any factory organisation as 10 of Airbus' 16 plants are sited there.
He blamed his departure on too much interference from Eads, Airbus's Franco-German parent, which had not been prepared to devolve the level of autonomy M. Streiff believed necessary were he to successfully implement a radical turnaround plan.
Charged with reviving Airbus's flagging fortunes, M. Streiff's controversial blueprint to breathe life back into the crisis-hit company provoked political furore in Germany and resistance from the board of Eads.
Last week, M. Streiff called on Eads' board to back him or sack him. Yesterday, he told the French newspaper Le Figaro: "I progressively came to the conclusion that the governance of Airbus did not allow my plan to succeed."
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