The chief executive of Airbus said on Tuesday that Europe's space industry needs to restructure and consolidate in the face of private U.S. competition and investments in China and elsewhere.

"We are fragmented in a world where some giants have emerged, especially in the U.S. but not only; they are also growing in China," Guillaume Faury told a press conference of the European aerospace lobby ASD Europe, of which he is president.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Andrew Gray; Editing by Kevin Liffey)