Company veteran named Airbus sales chief after ex-Rolls executive quits

Airbus named its second new sales chief in less than a year Thursday after CCO Eric Schulz abruptly resigned 9 months after being poached from Rolls-Royce to lead the battle for jet sales against Boeing. The planemaker said Christian Scherer, head of ATR and an Airbus veteran who had been beaten to the job by Schulz in November last year, would take over the position immediately. The surprise exit comes as Airbus faces delays and industry-wide reliability problems with engines that soured relations with several customers and left Schulz increasingly frustrated, people familiar with the matter said. The company now has a battle on its hands to recapture lost ground after its share of orders against Boeing this year slumped to barely a quarter in the wake of a looser than usual set of commitments at the Farnborough Airshow. <br/>