FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) —The chief executive of Airbus said Sunday that his company remains concerned about the record-setting euro but is not poised to cut more jobs.
CEO Thomas Enders, in an interview with German newspaper Tagesspiegel that will be published Monday, said Airbus still remains concerned about the strength of the euro, which soared to a record high of $1.5238 Friday, but with its order books brimming it does not plan to cut any jobs.
''If the dollar drops by 10 cents we have to make savings of a further 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to maintain our competitiveness,'' Enders was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which made an advance copy of the article available Sunday. ''The dollar's decline in itself is not the only reason for concern but the speed of the decline.''
Enders told the newspaper that job cuts were not in the company's plans.
''We cannot cut another several thousand jobs amid full order books,'' he said, adding that Airbus expects 700 new orders this year, including 30 for its A380 double-decker passenger jet and 100 orders for its A350 XWB wide-body passenger jet.
Since the start of the year, the euro has risen from $1.4726 to its current high, though it was down to $1.5194 in late New York trading Friday.
Airbus, a unit of the Franco-German European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV, is in the midst of a restructuring plan that aims to cut 10,000 jobs and recoup some 2 billion euros (3 billion) in savings by 2010.
Despite the euro's strength, Enders said Airbus still expects to break even in 2008.
