Airbus Press Conference at Asian Aerospace ‘06 Showcasing at Singapore the most modern aircraft flying today

Speaking to the media, Airbus President and CEO Gustav Humbert flanked by COOs Charles Champion and John Leahy, stressed the commercial success of Airbus which achieved record results in 2005, and the warm response of airlines and airports to the A380. The aircraft, which visited Singapore once before in November, is open to visitors and flying at the show every day in Singapore Airlines’ colours.

He highlighted the achievements of last year in which Airbus achieved better results than its competitor with 1,110 firm orders, 378 deliveries, a backlog of more than 2,100 aircraft to be delivered and a 52 per cent market share in terms of gross units.

Gustav Humbert also explained the key performance indicators that seemed most important to him for the company: “Orders, market shares, deliveries and backlog are all important key performance indicators, but what is even more important to me is profitability. As long as we remain in the 40-60 per cent market share band, one per cent more profitability is more important to me than one per cent more market share,” he said.

Another key performance indicator is customer satisfaction. “We want to have happy customers and in this area of activity, we know that there is always room for improvement. We are already well-positioned but doing better is our top priority. In this sector we really are striving to excellence,” he said.

Finally he drew the audience’ attention to the fact that Airbus was becoming more and more global in its industrial set-up. “By nature we are multinational and we believe in trans-national co-operations from which we can mutually benefit,” he said. Airbus seeks to develop further its industrial co-operation with China, Russia and India said Gustav Humbert who expects decisions on new projects to be taken in 2006. These include a final assembly line in China, and an engineering and a services centre in India.

He added that Airbus had recently entrusted the construction of two ships to Singapore. These ships will be used to transport large sections of the A380 and of other aircraft.

John Leahy talked about the success of the Airbus product line, last year’s record figures and the good numbers obtained so far. “We have obtained 61 per cent of the market in 2006 so far and we hope to have another record year,” he said. He stressed the success of the Airbus’ widebody aircraft and the continuing success of the A320 Family. He also emphasised how Asia is the growth market of world.

Speaking of Airbus’ latest products, he described the A350 as a combination of Airbus’ A330/A340 experience with A380’s new technology. “The A350 is the right size for Asia,” he said and mentioned some of the aircraft’s plus: a state-of-the-art cockpit, a completely new cabin, new engines, a new crew rest area, new landing gear, new tail. “A whole new aircraft and yet it will retain a common type rating with the A330. That’s what is possible with Airbus fly-by-wire,” he added. He then invited the audience to come and see the cabin for themselves once the new mock-up opens in Toulouse in March.

Charles Champion gave an update on the progress of the A380 flight test campaign. Four test A380s are flying since the latest maiden flight on 19 February in Toulouse. By 20 February, the test aircraft had performed 250 flights and 921 flight hours. “We are now entering the certification process,” he said adding that the programme was on track and going well. Although the A380 is facing a “tough test programme ahead”, Charles Champion sees no problem in obtaining certification at the end of the year in time for the first delivery to Singapore Airlines.