U.S. Spirit eyes Airbus plants: paper

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft fuselage maker Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. (SPR.N) is eyeing plants that European planemaker Airbus is selling as part of a restructuring aimed at lowering costs, a German paper said.

Spirit has expressed interest in four of the six plants for which Airbus is seeking buyers or partners, the Financial Times Deutschland reported on Thursday, citing Airbus sources.

"This is just speculation. There is no comment that we can make on this," said an Airbus spokeswoman.

The paper said Airbus, owned by European aerospace and defense company EADS (EAD.PA), would not confirm the interest from Spirit.

Spirit, which is a former unit of Airbus rival Boeing (BA.N) which makes commercial jet fuselages and wing parts, is partly owned by Canadian buyout firm Onex Corp. (OCX.TO).