Two new tsars to be created as Airbus reorganisation takes shape

By Tim Hepher

BARCELONA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders plans to expand a shake-up of Europe's largest aerospace group by promoting two executives to oversee engineering and programmes as he forces through more "integration" to prepare for future competition.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters the heads of the company's two remaining core divisions would get additional group-wide functions after Fabrice Bregier, head of the dominant Airbus unit, was designated as chief operating officer.

Nine months after arriving from Germany's Siemens (Berlin: 29783751.BE - news) , Dirk Hoke, the head of Airbus Group (Swiss: AIR.SW - news) 's second largest division, Airbus Defence & Space, could be awarded oversight of industrial programmes across the group, the people said.

Guillaume Faury, who leads Airbus Helicopters, may be responsible for engineering, the people said, asking not to be named because the reorganisation has not yet been announced.

Fabrice Bregier, whose planned appointment as Airbus Group's chief operating officer, on top of his existing role as head of the jetliner unit, was reported last week, will oversee group-wide operations as Enders' no.2.

Airbus Group declined comment.

The latest move builds on efforts to knit together the once faction-ridden company and mark an end to what Enders described in the past as "fiefdoms" inside the group, whose products range from jetliners to satellites and choppers to fighter jets.

Enders said in a letter to staff last week organisational changes would be finalised soon, adding "lean structures" and speedy decision-making were both priorities.

It was not immediately clear what if any day-to-day role the overlapping business heads would play in each other's divisions, each of which faces pressing industrial challenges and can ill afford any loss of focus, according to analysts.

Insiders say it is not, in the immediate term, chiefly seen as a cost-cutting exercise but that it would help prepare for a more radical modernisation relying on digital design, production and support methods that would also require some new investment.

Enders recently named Marc Fontaine the company's first "digital transformation officer".

Job cuts have not been ruled out, however, particularly as a result of slow demand for A380 jetliners and civil helicopters.

Others say it strengthens Enders' grip after longstanding tensions with Bregier, who is expected to give up his title as chief executive of the Airbus commercial unit while remaining its president and cementing his status as likely next group CEO. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by Richard Lough)