By Tim Hepher
TOULOUSE, France, June 15 (Reuters) - The head of European planemaker Airbus urged France and the European Union to tackle high regulatory and other costs weighing on businesses, and said the question of competitiveness should be addressed in next year's French presidential election.
Addressing French politicians including the country's transport minister at the opening of a new assembly line in Toulouse in southern France, CEO Guillaume Faury singled out labour and energy costs and called
the cost of European regulatory barriers "absolutely horrible".
Faury was speaking at the inauguration of a new assembly line for the best-selling A321neo aircraft, as Airbus seeks to speed up the congested production of in-demand narrowbody models. The line is the second of its kind to be added in a vast Toulouse factory once dedicated to the world's largest airliner, the A380 superjumbo.
U.S. arch-rival Boeing is also expanding production for its competing 737 MAX into the former home of its 747 jumbo, as the planemakers reshape their historic wide-body factories to make way for smaller planes that dominate today's jet market.
Production of medium-haul jets like the A321neo is "at the heart of Airbus' strategy", Faury told aviation workers and politicians in the former A380 plant outside Toulouse, France.
While the 747 outsold and outlasted its European rival, Airbus' A320 medium-haul family last year surpassed Boeing's recently troubled 737 as the most-sold series of jetliners.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Milla Nissi-Prussak)
