The new head of European plane maker Airbus said on Tuesday the group's structure needed to be simplified, and decisions would be made in the next few months that could lead to "painful" job losses among its 55,000 staff.
A company spokeswoman said, however, that a report on the website of La Tribune financial newspaper saying some 10,000 jobs would go was "premature".
Louis Gallois, who took over late on Monday when Christian Streiff resigned after just 100 days in the post, said the fact that he was combining the jobs of Airbus head with his existing role as co-chief executive at Airbus's parent EADS already meant a simplification of the structure.
"There will no longer be potential conflicts between the co-president (chief executive) of EADS and the head of Airbus. That allows a simpler and more unified command structure," he told Europe 1 radio in an interview in Paris before leaving for the Toulouse headquarters of Airbus, where he met managers.
He said the A380 superjumbo, a double-decker plane for more than 550 passengers that has now been delayed by two years following production problems due to its complicated wiring, remained a great aircraft. "If we have a problem with the wiring, it is because Airbus is not yet a fully integrated company, and now we have to meld it together ... We have no longer a choice," he said.
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