EADS reports losses after its plane deals run into trouble
EADS, the owner of planemaker Airbus, has ditched its dividend after reporting a loss of €763 m (£693m).
The figures for 2009 were dragged down after its A400 military plane project overran.
EADS is the world’s second-biggest aerospace company after Boeing.
Its revenues fell to €42.8bn from €43.3bn.
The loss followed EADS and its partner Northrop-Grumman pulling out of the race for a £27bn contract with the US air force for a fleet of air tankers.
The contract would have been fulfilled by workers in Britain France and Spain but now the way is clear for Boeing to take the 179-aircraft deal.
The wings for the aircraft would have come from Airbus’s factory at Broughton in North Wales.
But the company said it felt that the US military would be more inclined to choose homegrown Boeing to take the contract.
Problems with its overrunning A380 superjumbo also contributed to its poor figures.
The company said in a statement: “The A380 continued to weigh heavily on the underlying performance.”