The third day of the Paris Air Show and in focus is the “Space Alliance” partnership between Thales of France and Italy’s Finmeccanica. The expansion of that alliance with the recent purchase of Alcatel’s stake in Alenia Space and Telespazio means the Franco-Italian joint venture has 40% of the European satellite market, covering areas such as defence and security, GPS, space exploration and monitoring of the environment.

At a news conference in Paris, the boss of Thales Denis Ranque and Finmeccanica’s chief Executive Pierfrancesco Guarguaglini told reporters more support is needed from European governments over crossborder ties.

Ranque said: “The goal of this alliance is to create a European space champion at a time when we feel that there’s not enough European money being put into this area compared with what the US is spending on space technology. It’s so important for the development of our companies, as well as for the region’s security and the environment and telecommunications.”

Meanwhile the civil airliner wars continue. Airbus said it has received firm orders from Russia’s Aeroflot for 22 of its A350s and commitments for another 56. That came a day after International Lease Finance Corporation signed a deal with Boeing for 50 more 787 Dreamliners.

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