Spanish minister Luis Valero said Airbus showed how real economy businesses could be a success, taking a swipe at the banking sector at the same time.

“Europe should go into less finance and more real economy because the finance sector can bring a lot of problems,” he said.

Hintze and his fellow ministers also welcomed plans by Airbus to build a final assembly line in the United States, saying it would help Airbus to grow and thus secure jobs in France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

They dismissed any concerns that a trade war could flare up with the United States over mutual accusations of billions of dollars of illegal aircraft subsidies for Airbus and Boeing.

“There are only losers in a trade war,” Hintze said, saying that all parties would work to avoid such a scenario.

When asked about the ETS emissions trading scheme, British minister Mark Prisk said they were aware of Airbus’ concerns that possible retaliation measures from the likes of China could hurt the European aerospace industry but that it was impossible to set a deadline for a global agreement to be reached.