A400M: Engine making consortium seek damages

Thursday, 11 March 2010

A German newspaper reports that Airbus' military arm and the engine-making consortium for the A400M transporter plane are seeking hundreds of millions of euros from each other in a dispute over delays to the project.

The daily Financial Times Deutschland — citing EADS documents — said Thursday that the Airbus arm wants some €500 million ($680 million) from EPI Europrop International GmbH. It said EPI wants €425 million from the Airbus arm.

It says the dispute centers on who is to blame for lengthy delays to the troubled A400M program.

EPI said it is "a commercially confidential matter between Airbus and EPI." It added in a statement that "operationally it's business as usual."

Airbus Military declined to comment. It said only that Europrop provided a "very good engine."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.