Airbus appoints new technology head in research shake-up

By Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) -Airbus has appointed its top executive in South Asia to be its next head of technology in a shake-up of design and engineering as it studies options for a successor to its best-selling A320neo jetliner, an internal memo showed on Friday.

Remi Maillard, currently head of Airbus India and South Asia, will lead Research & Technology across the European aerospace group as Head of Technology Airbus and will combine that role with leadership of engineering at the core commercial airplanes business.

The Frenchman succeeds Sabine Klauke in the twin role but the technology part of the job - which involves representing Airbus in major European-funded projects - will no longer be called Chief Technology Officer nor come with a seat on the main executive committee, according to the memo seen by Reuters.

From July 1, Klauke will oversee digital design and manufacturing in the main commercial business, taking charge of a future factory ecosystem that CEO Guillaume Faury has described as essential to the next generation of jet production.

Airbus confirmed an earlier Reuters report on the changes in a LinkedIn posting.

Airbus merged technology and engineering in 2021, putting long-term research and current projects under one roof after a series of turf battles over resources, industry sources said.

Klauke reported both to commercial planemaking CEO Christian Scherer and Faury under a complex structure introduced when the commercial division was reinstated as a separate arm of the company just over a year ago.

One source familiar with the changes said they reflected the weight being given to the next potential airplane project, which Airbus has said it may launch towards the end of the decade, but another said the technology function had been downgraded.

In a handwritten postscript to the memo, Faury called the new roles "absolutely instrumental to the future of Airbus".

Airbus has said it is working on a number of technologies for a successor to its cash-generating A320neo including new propulsion, materials, systems and slender folding wings.

However, it delayed plans for a smaller regional hydrogen-powered plane earlier this year, joining Boeing and turboprop maker ATR in rolling back a number of high-profile research projects. Airbus says the ecosystem for hydrogen is not mature.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Dominique Vidalon, Kirsten Donovan)