Airbus has poached a Rolls-Royce executive to replace John Leahy as head of sales at the pan-European plane-maker.

Eric Schulz, currently president of the civil aerospace at Rolls, will join Airbus at the end of January, as chief of sales.

Mr Leahy is famed in the civil aerospace world for his sales skills and nicknamed “Mr Airbus” after a 33-year career with the company.

He has been involved in the sale of of 16,000 of the company’s aircraft - almost every one of the total 17,370 orders Airbus has taken since he started with the company.

An American, Mr Leahy joined Airbus from Piper Aircraft and took the head of commercial aircraft sales role in 1994.