Paris (AFP)
The French government unveiled on Tuesday a vast plan to support the aeronautics sector, ravaged by the coronavirus crisis, representing "a total effort of 15 billion euros from the nation", including 1.5 billion spent on research towards a carbon neutral aircraft in 2035.
"We declare a state of emergency to save our aeronautical industry to allow it to be more competitive" and "more decarbonized" by producing the "green plane" of tomorrow, said Bruno Le Maire at a conference of press in Bercy.
Some 1.5 billion euros in public funding will be spent over the next three years on research and development with the aim of "achieving a carbon neutral aircraft in 2035", the minister announced.
While nearly a third of 35,000 jobs dedicated to R&D in the aeronautics sector are challenged by the difficulties of the sector, the objective is to prepare the next generations of commercial aircraft, helicopters and business aircraft with new propulsion modes emitting less CO2, such as hydrogen and "very high dilution" engines.
In order to "accelerate the transformation of SMEs and mid-size companies", the State and the aeronautical industry have also agreed to create an investment fund with 500 million euros this summer, and over a billion euros.
The State through the public bank Bpifrance "will provide 200 million euros, the industrialists (Airbus, Safran, Dassault Aviation and Thales, editor's note) also 200 million euros, at least 100 million will be provided by the fund manager who will be chosen by tender, said Bruno Le Maire.
These 500 million euros "will raise a billion in the long term," he said.
In addition, another support fund for the modernization of the production tool and in particular the digitization and robotization of SMEs and mid-caps, endowed with 300 million euros in direct public spending over three years, was created, he also announced.
In addition, the Ministry of the Armed Forces will anticipate this year orders for military aircraft which were planned for later, up to 600 million euros, or about 5% of its equipment budget, announced Minister Florence Parly.
These orders relate in particular to three Airbus A330s which will ultimately be transformed into supply aircraft (A330 MRTT), 8 Caracal maneuvering helicopters, a light surveillance and intelligence aircraft and drones intended for the Navy.
Some 200 million will also be spent by the Interior on the purchase of aircraft for the gendarmerie and civil security, while the budget of the fund in defense industry SMEs, named Definvest, will be increased from 50 to 100 million euros for the next five years.
The aeronautical sector represents 300,000 direct and indirect jobs in France. "If we had not intervened immediately, a third of the jobs in the sector would have disappeared," said Bruno Le Maire, calling on industry to do everything "to avoid forced departures".
Air France alone benefited from seven billion euros in state aid in the form of direct loans or bank loans guaranteed by the public authorities, an amount included in the plan's 15 billion. This should in particular allow it to complete the order for 60 Airbus A220s and 38 wide-body A350s that it had planned.
© 2020 AFP