FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders waits to visit final assembly line at Airbus headquarters in Blagnac near Toulouse, France March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - The chief executive of Airbus AIR.PA said he was open to a merger of his firm's jet fighter business with that of BAE Systems BAES.L, the Sunday Times reported.

Tom Enders was quoted as saying it was time to “seriously look at consolidating and coalescing efforts eventually to one” and that “there’s just no room for three different programs, not even for two”.

His comments raise the prospect of a pan-European military aircraft firm to compete with the United States.

Airbus and BAE Systems were not immediately available to comment.