A post-COVID-19 Airbus

Interviewer: So if you look five years ahead for Airbus how… how much will the company have changed?

Airbus CEO: I think five years down the road we are out of COVID-19 and the world will have changed a lot. It’s difficult to know exactly what will have changed and what the world will look like. Airbus will still be an aerospace company. I think we will have adapted to that new situation. We will have invested in technologies to prepare the future bit in defence in space and of course in commercial aviation. So I think it’s a lot about adaptation. The world is going faster and faster and one of the skills that company really need to have is ability to change to adapt I think that’s one of the skills of Airbus and we’ll keep having that in the very focus of the company.

Interviewer: Do you think that the the current industrial footprint will be sustainable for the future and for that time given the downsizing of the of the commercial business right now.

Airbus CEO: Well we see a short-term downsizing that is very significant five years ahead we’ll be out of COVID-19 and I think very large share of the commercial aviation will have recovered maybe will be even larger than what it was in 2019. So I anticipate that we will again have a very large commercial airplane business in… in five years. We have an international footprint, Airbus is a global company we are in the Americas, we are in Europe, we are in Asia and mainly in China and I think this will be an asset moving forward so still the centre of the grouping in Europe but very present in the Americas and China and Asia and I think this is something that will grow. The world will be probably more scattered after this COVID-19 crisis but Airbus will remain global and we are really really very proud and also really very much looking forward to stay in those regions and grow and be present and contribute to the communities and the success of aviation in those, in those regions so that’s something that will remain probably.

Interviewer: So France and Germany have launched support packages for the aerospace industry in Europe. Do you think that these packages in particular as far as technology are concerned are accelerating innovation.

Airbus CEO: I think the general environments with covid, with health is more and more present, it’s quite obvious that there is an acceleration in the expectations on clean aviation that we had before but that are even stronger. There is a sense that not to waste the COVID-19 crisis. It’s on technology that we have to invest now and yes obviously this is an accelerator. I’m very happy by the way. I think that’s the right direction to take and we Airbus will do our very maximum to take benefit of those support packages and and progress towards the plane of the future that will be a decarbonised plane.

Interviewer: Also speaking about five years from now and market share this time. Do you think that is that going to be a permanent shift in Airbus’s favour given all the problems that your main competitor has with the crisis plus the MAX issues?

Airbus CEO: I think first everybody has a lot of problems to deal with given the COVID-19 situation and what it requires for aviation. We’re not really looking at market shares in this very moment we are looking at adapting ourselves with our customers to this very challenging situation. I’m sure our competitors main competitor will find their ways and we’ll see later what the situation look like, it’s too early to say. I would not speculate. The situation has changed very quickly in the last two years so it’s not unlikely that many other things will change and therefore will not speculate. We focus on what we have to do, doing the right things for Airbus and for our customers.

1. He says that Airbus will have to adapt to the new reality that the world is in after COVID-19. He also says that Airbus will invest in technologies to prepare for the future.
2. He says that the current ‘downsizing’ in Airbus will improve and might be ‘larger than 2019′ in five years and that Airbus’ global presence will be a help in the future.
3. He says that it’s important not to waste this opportunity to invest in these technologies and that COVID-19 is speeding up this movement towards a de-carbonised plane.
4. He says that Airbus isn’t really looking at that at the moment but is focused on adapting to the current global situation in aviation.

1. He uses the ‘future perfect’ tense to talk about this.
2. These are the forms he uses;
– ‘the world will have changed a lot…’
– ‘I think that we will have adapted to that new situation…’
– ‘we will have invested in technologies…’
– ‘commercial aviation will have recovered’
3. The form is subject + will + have + past participle (main verb)
4. We use it to talk about something which will be completed or achieved at a time in the future (five years into the future in this situation).
5. (Learner’s sentences)
6. He uses the phrasal verb ‘look forward to’, but says ‘look forward to stay’ (incorrect verb form) instead of the correct form, ‘look forward to staying’.