Examination of Witnesses (Question 219)
MR FABRICE
BRÉGIER, MR
FRANCISCO FERNÁNDEZ
SÁINZ, MR
RICHARD THOMPSON,
AND MR
CHARLES PATERSON
22 MAY 2007
Q219 Chairman: Gentlemen, good morning.
Thank you very much for coming to give evidence to us about the
A400M. You have been listening to the evidence session we have
had already. We are grateful to you for coming. I wonder if you
could possibly introduce yourselves and say what the roles of
your companies are in the A400M programme, please. Mr Brégier,
would you like to start, please?
Mr Brégier: Mr Chairman,
thank you very much. My name is Fabrice Brégier. I am the
Chief Operating Officer of Airbus and I am also Chairman of Airbus
Military. As you know, Airbus Military is the prime contractor
for the A400M, and Airbus is a principal shareholder of Airbus
Military.
Mr Sáinz: My name is Francisco
Fernández Sáinz. I am the Managing Director of Airbus
Military. At the same time, I am the Head of the Military Transport
Aircraft Division in EADS.
Mr Paterson: Good morning. My
name is Charles Paterson I am Head of the A400M activities here
in the UK with specific responsibilities for the wing.
Mr Thompson: Good morning, Mr
Chairman. My name is Richard Thompson. I am the Commercial Director
of Airbus Military. I was in at the beginning of this programme
when we drew up the specifications for the contract, negotiated
the contract, signed the contract. One of my responsibilities
is on contractual affairs for this programme.
Chairman: Thank you very much. You have
heard the evidence this morning. There is usually a problem both
of cost and delay in defence equipment programmes but this is
a programme which seems to be coming in under cost—which
is, I think, unusual—and we have heard about the delay but
this has not been attributed to you, so you might have an easier
ride of it than you otherwise would have done.
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