Aerospace and Defence Industries Assn. of Europe supported calls from Airbus and ATR for both EU and national authorities "to provide financial support to the industry's customers, in particular through the implementation of funding schemes aimed at facilitating airlines' access to liquidity for the purchasing of new aircraft."

The ASD board and council, which met last week in Brussels, also urged authorities to pay "particular" attention to the supply chain, where small and medium-sized companies struggle to adjust to worsening economic conditions and need easier access to liquidity. ASD President and Cobham CEO Allan Cook suggested that "a loan program for aerospace SMEs would be particularly welcome" (ATWOnline, Feb. 24).

At the same meeting, Airbus CEO and German Aerospace Industries Assn. President Tom Enders slammed the difficult start of the Clean Sky research program, launched in February and aimed at introducing new, cleaner aircraft (ATWOnline, Feb. 24).

"Clean Sky was designed to be an inspiring and important public/private partnership to reinforce the competitiveness of our sector in line with the Lisbon Strategy. But it is still struggling to get off the ground," Enders lamented. "Severe constraints are imposed by internal [European] Commission regulations which are ill-adapted to this type of partnership and have continually delayed the effective start of the program," he continued, warning of "the clear and present danger that the program will fail to produce the needed results on time."