PARIS – Boeing commercial aircraft chief Alan Mulally made a foray into enemy territory, meeting with the top executive of Airbus at its headquarters in France, officials from both companies confirmed on Tuesday.
Mulally and Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard held what was described as a private meeting Monday evening in the southern French city of Toulouse to discuss airplane security following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht said.
Jean-Marc Fron, spokesman in Europe for Chicago-based Boeing, said Mulally was in town for an awards ceremony at an engineering school and was given a tour of the Airbus plant.
Kracht said the meeting was “private” adding that it was not unusual for the two companies to discuss safety matters.
“It’s normal for us to exchange views with each other or airlines about safety issues,” she said. “We are fierce competitors in the commercial aircraft field, but on safety we work together.”
Airbus and Boeing are among the world’s fiercest corporate rivals in the manufacturing of commercial jets. Last week, Forgeard criticized the U.S. government for what he called its unfair policy of subsidizing Boeing after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Forgeard had said in an interview published in Les Echos, a French financial daily, that the U.S. aid was a “veritable Boeing Marshall Plan.”
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