Airbus gets go-ahead for vital restructuring plan

European aircraft maker Airbus finally won approval to press ahead with a rescue plan on Monday, clearing the way for major job cuts and signaling an end to Franco-German tensions over the restructuring of the company.

"The EADS board of directors today unanimously approved the Power8 plan for the transformation of Airbus," said a statement from parent company EADS, which owns 100 percent of the group.

The broad outlines of the "Power8" restructuring plan were first unveiled by Airbus in October, but the detailed planning of the initiative had caused strains between France and Germany over where job cuts would fall.

EADS said the plan would be unveiled to representatives of Airbus's 55,000-strong workforce today and the company would then give details to the public.

"Power8 shall enable Airbus to better face the challenge of the US dollar weakness, the financial burden related to the A380 delays as well as its future investment needs," EADS added.

While Airbus has stressed the commercial imperative of implementing Power8, the specter of job cuts and the closure of factories has highlighted nationalist strains at the heart of the Franco-German company.

French politicians are particularly sensitive about job cuts ahead of presidential elections in April and May, a fact which has raised fears in Germany that German workers would bear the brunt of the cutbacks.

A report by the German magazine Focus said on Monday that Airbus would dispose entirely or partially of two factories in France and Germany.

The French Les Echos reported last Friday that Airbus would seek to close four factories in France and four in Germany, while French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin referred on Feb. 20 to 10,000 job cuts -- a figure later denied by the German government.

Implementation of the plan is likely to face fierce resistance from trade unions, which have organized protests since the plan was first unveiled four months ago.

"With this decision, its the end of the tunnel but also the beginning of the problems," said Jean-Francois Knepper, a representative of the powerful, hard-left Force Ouvriere trade union on Monday.

Airbus had delayed unveiling its rescue plan last week because of the failure of the EADS board to agree on the sharing of work for Airbus's new mid-sized long-haul jet, the A350 XWB.