Air France-KLM head denies French state has played role in major Airbus order

Asked on the potential role the French state could have played to push for Air France-KLM’s order of 100 Airbus jets, the carrier’s CEO Ben Smith said that there was no pressure on the company to give an advantage to the French-German conglomerate over its US rival Boeing.“Our choice is solely dictated by the interest of the company”, Smith was cited as saying by French paper Les Echos. The French government is the airline’s main shareholder.<br/>