Airbus CEO's Bumpy Ride, From Failed Bid to Super-Sized Headache

(Bloomberg) -- Airbus SE chief Tom Enders -- who is standing down in April 2019 -- has notched up some notable successes since taking charge in 2012, from the launch of a re-engined jet that outflanked Boeing Co. to the scrapping of a complex structure that had dogged the company since its formation in 2000.

Yet for every advance there has also been an almost equally significant setback: From the failed merger approach for defense giant BAE Systems Plc soon after Enders took over, through the frustratingly slow-selling A380 superjumbo, to probes into bribery claims that have bedeviled Airbus over the past year.

While he did outlast his top rival, Airbus second-in-command and commercial planemaking head Fabrice Bregier, who will leave in February, Enders didn’t come through unscathed.

Here’s a rundown of some the German’s CV highlights, and the blemishes:

Airbus shareholders who have stuck with the Toulouse, France-based company through Enders’s tenure may think that the occasional bout of turbulence was worth enduring.

Since he has been at the controls the stock price has more than tripled, valuing the business at 66 billion euros ($78 billion).

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Jasper in London at cjasper@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Benedikt Kammel

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