Airbus wants support for A350 jets - report

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus ARBU.UL believes that German and French governments must help the company which stands to lose billions of euros due to the weak dollar, the newspaper Euro am Sonntag said.

In a summary of a story, due to be published on Sunday, the paper said that the company, part of European aerospace and defence group EADS (EAD.PA), especially needed financial support for its long-distance A350 jets.

"Unlike in the case of earlier models, Airbus has so far not taken advantage of any public sector development loans for A350s," the newspaper quoted an Airbus manager as saying.

"Given the further worsening of the dollar exchange rate we cannot afford to do so any longer," he added.

The manager was quoted as saying there were no plans for redundancies.

But Germany's weekly Focus magazine said ahead of its Monday edition that Airbus employees would be expected to lengthen their working hours to 40 from 35 without compensation.

Citing an internal group of experts at the firm, Focus also said that Airbus planned to use more sub-contractors from dollar-denominated countries and to build up more plants outside Europe such as in China, Russia, India and Arabic countries.

Focus also reiterated media reports that the plants at Varel, Nordenham and Augsburg would soon be sold to German technology company OHB Technology (OHBG.DE), which it said was negotiating about a partnership with financial investor Cerberus to finance the deal.

"That's a horror vision for us," it quoted a works council member as saying.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, Editing by Peter Blackburn)