Airbus CEO says Spirit Aero talks going well but industrial challenges lie ahead

The head of European planemaker Airbus said talks to finalise the takeover of part of troubled U.S. aerostructures supplier Spirit Aerosystems were going smoothly but that bringing it into Airbus would "not be a walk in the park". Airbus plans to take over the running of four Spirit plants associated with its A350 and A220 jetliner programmes as part of a loosely coordinated plan to carve up the company with Boeing, which is buying back almost all the rest of its former unit.<br/>The rare act of cooperation between business foes reflects concerns that the rapid decline of one of the industry's key suppliers, spun off from Boeing almost 20 years ago, could have spread havoc through the world's largest planemakers. Because the plants lose money, Spirit has agreed to pay $559m to Airbus subject to due diligence and the shape of the deal, which could also include a fifth Scottish plant. "My teams say the finalisation is going reasonably well...so I am quite optimistic on Spirit," Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told Reuters in an interview. But the French CEO said tough tasks still lay ahead. "We will have to go from signing to closing and then we will have to get our hands on it, and will have to do the ramp-up," Faury said on the sidelines of a European industry event. "There are plenty of problems to be solved. It is not a walk in the park but it seems that we are ticking the boxes one by one."<br/>