AIRBUS POSTPONES ITS INVESTOR DAYS DUE TO QUEEN ELIZABETH’S JUBILEE
by Tim Hepher
PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus has decided to postpone its investor days, the first organized in three years, the dates chosen, which coincide with the jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, having provoked the dissatisfaction of the British investors and employees of the manufacturer.
Airbus officials wrote to attendees acknowledging that the days on which its Capital Market Days were to take place were “inappropriate” and decided to push them back to September 22 and 23, according to an email seen by Reuters.
The original dates of June 2 and 3 overlapped two public holidays at the start of celebrations marking 70 years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign in the UK, where 14,000 workers build the wings of Airbus planes
The company is also the largest aircraft supplier to Britain’s Royal Air Force, which plans to hold a Jubilee flypast likely to include Airbus transport planes on June 2.
The initial dates angered UK investors and analysts who would have been forced to give up their public holidays to travel to France for the event. “The British were revolted,” commented Rob Stallard, an analyst at Vertical Research.
Airbus, which celebrated its 50th anniversary three years ago, was born of a consortium of manufacturers in Britain, France, Germany and Spain. But analysts say his role in the UK has been increasingly marginalized since Brexit.
A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on the program for these two days.
This event aims to revive interest in the sector after the two-year pandemic and should reveal the future strategy of the manufacturer against its rival Boeing, which also organizes its investor days in September.
(Report by Tim Hepher, French version Kate Entringer, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)