Airbus says pressured by dollar despite U.S. deal

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Aerospace firm EADS's (EAD.PA) German Airbus unit must seek additional savings due to the weak dollar, despite being boosted by a big contract awarded by the U.S. Air Force, Chief Executive Thomas Enders said in an interview with Berlin daily Der Tagespiegel.

But with full order books, there was no room for job reductions beyond those already planned, he said in excerpts of the interview, which is due to be published on Monday.

"When the dollar drops by 10 cents, we have to make savings of one billion euros ($1.52 billion) in order to maintain our competitiveness," Enders said.

"We are worried not just by the decline of the dollar but also by the speed of this decline," he added.

Airbus, a France-based maker of large commercial jets, a year ago launched a savings program called Power8 under which it will cut 10,000 jobs by 2010.

Enders said the program in its first year had led to cost reductions of 300 million euros and 30 percent of the job cuts had already been completed.

EADS and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N) landed the $35 billion U.S. Air Force refueling plane deal on Friday beating a rival bid by Boeing (BA.N).

(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Erica Billingham)