Christian Streiff, the former co-head of Airbus, has been named as successor to Jean-Martin Folz when the PSA Peugeot Citroën chief executive retires early next year.
News of Mr Streiff's appointment came as Airbus suffered a further blow to its A380 super-jumbo programme with FedEx cancelling its order for 10 of the freighter versions of the aircraft. It switched its business to the European plane maker's arch-rival, Boeing.
FedEx said it had decided to cancel the order after Airbus had revealed delays to deliveries of the new aircraft.
Mr Streiff quit at Airbus last month after only 100 days. His departure came after he lost a power struggle over the style of radical reforms, including big job cuts, he planned to introduce to combat the problems facing the A380 programme.
He takes over at a time when PSA Peugeot Citroën is battling to improve its own performance after a series of profits warnings. The company announced this year that it was to close its Coventry factory and has introduced a series of cost saving measures across the group.
PSA Peugeot Citroën has been seeking a new chief executive since Mr Folz said in September that he planned to step down after a decade at the head of the group when he reached 60 early in 2007.
French newspapers began speculating that Mr Streiff could get the top job at the French car maker even before he had left Airbus. PSA Peugeot Citroën said Mr Streiff will join the group today and will spend the coming weeks getting to know the group before his formal appointment to the top job at a supervisory board meeting in early February.
Airbus put a brave face on the loss of the FedEx order. It said it regretted the decision but added: "We understand their need to urgently address capacity issues."
Airbus's parent company, EADS, is due to report quarterly figures today and its statement will be scanned for any hint about the formal launch of the new A350, designed to rival Boeing's dreamliner.
Mr Streiff announced an upgraded version of the A350 this summer after airlines complained the initial version was too close to the company's existing A330. The new aircraft has yet to be given the formal go-ahead.
