An Airbus A380 double-decker superjumbo takes off for the first long-distance test flight with hundreds of passengers on board drawn from Airbus staff and cabin design specialists in Toulouse, southwestern France, yester0day. - Reuters
PARIS, France (AP):
The Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger jet, took off with a full load of passengers for the first time yesterday and the European aircraft maker announced further management changes in the wake of costly delays to the euro10 billion (US$13 billion) superjumbo programme.
Carrying 474 Airbus employees, the 280-metric tonne (308-ton) jet left from Toulouse, southern France, on the first of four test flights scheduled this week to try out the plane's cabin environment and systems with passengers on board.
Airbus says it is on schedule to deliver the first finished A380 to Singapore Airlines Limited by the end of the year, despite the latest wave of costly delays that are expected to hold up subsequent deliveries by about six months.
The setback led to the July ouster of Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert as well as Noel Forgeard, joint CEO of Airbus parent European Aero-nautic Defence and Space Company
Yesterday saw a further management shuffle at Airbus, which named as the new A380 programme head Mario Heinen, the former chief of the single-aisle A320 programme.
Future demand
He replaces Charles Champion, who also steps down from his role as chief operating officer, but stays on as an adviser to the new Airbus CEO, Christian Streiff.
Streiff has imposed a temporary hiring freeze at Airbus and is scheduled to report to shareholders by the end of this month on the full extent of the A380 delays, following a detailed audit.
With the A380, Airbus has bet heavily on future demand for very large planes to fly growing numbers of travellers among the world's increasingly congested major airports.
In mid-sized, long-range jets - where Boeing Company sees much more demand - Airbus is about four years behind its United States-based rival's next-generation plane, the 787 Dreamliner, tailored to cover more destinations with more frequent, non-stop services.
The A380 can seat as many as 555 people in three classes, but launch customer Singapore Airlines is expected to operate the plane with a configuration similar to the 474-seat layout chosen for the test flights with passengers.
During yesterday's seven-hour sortie, about 25 cabin equipment technicians and the remaining volunteers - chosen from 15,000 Airbus staff who entered an internal lottery - were trying out the superjumbo's seating, kitchens and cabin features such as air conditioning and in-flight entertainment.
Flight tests with volunteer passengers are not a required step toward the plane's certification, but nonetheless help to ensure that "airlines will benefit from a fully mature aircraft on delivery," Airbus said in a statement.
The superjumbo is entering the final stages of its test programme, with 1,900 hours of flying time already logged by its team of test pilots.
It faces a significant hurdle in November, when a working group within the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is due to report back on the A380's 'wake vortices' - air turbulence created by airliners that can be dangerous to other planes flying close behind.
As a precaution because of its size, ICAO has temporarily set a much larger minimum exclusion zone behind an airborne A380 than around Boeing 747 jumbos.
If adopted permanently, the rules could hold up airport traffic behind the superjumbo and reduce the plane's efficiency.
Airbus argues that the A380 is no worse for wake turbulence than the largest version of Boeing's 747.
