MUNICH, Feb 19 (Portal) – Slow export permits from the German government are holding up billions of euros in arms exports from Airbus Defense & Space (AIR.PA), the company’s chief executive said on Sunday, urging Berlin to speed up the process .
“Several countries are interested in the (military transport aircraft) A400M. Unfortunately, we have difficulties in getting the German export permits in time,” Michael Schoellhorn told Portal in an interview at the Munich Security Conference.
“Our problem is that we haven’t received any orders from the turn of the century and important exports are not approved. That puts us in a very unsatisfactory situation,” said Schoellhorn.
He was referring to a €100 billion special fund set up last year to get the military back on its feet after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a “turning point” or sea change in the security days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had announced.
last update
Watch 2 more stories
“We cannot accept the constant delays (in export procedures). Planning reliability is the be-all and end-all,” said Schoellhorn.
He said orders for several products, not just the A400M, were stuck with the government in Berlin, but declined to give details – although he did offer a rough estimate of the financial volume.
“Overall, we are talking about several billion euros,” he said.
Referring to the loss-making A400M, Schoellhorn said he does not expect further significant charges due to industrial issues going forward if developments continue as in previous years, after Airbus results on Thursday showed a further 500 million euro charge.
He added that the company was eventually set to receive partial payments that customers were holding back.
Asked whether Europe will have to resort to Elon Musk’s SpaceX company for future space developments after Airbus Defense & Space lost two satellites on a Vega-C rocket, Schoellhorn said such a solution would only be temporary.
“Depending on the mission, we have to temporarily use other launchers, whether they come from SpaceX or from somewhere else, we have to see,” he said. “But we don’t want to do this forever.”
(This story has been refiled to add the deleted name in paragraph 2.)
Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Edited by Emelia Sithole-Matarise
Our standards: The Trust Principles.