Tom Enders recognises the Airbus team for "delivering" on his A380 delivery promise

President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders personally thanked Airbus employees at the A380 Final Assembly Line in Toulouse, France today for achieving the company's goal of delivering 12 A380s during 2008.

This milestone was particularly important to Enders, who made a personal commitment to journalists last September that Airbus would meet its 12-aircraft delivery milestone for the year - underscoring the company's ramp-up in providing A380s to its international customer base.

The Toulouse visit today followed Enders' presence at the Hamburg, Germany delivery centre on 30 December, when the 12th A380 of 2008 was provided to Emirates. As was the case in Germany, Enders shared champagne with employees inside the Toulouse Final Assembly Line facility to celebrate reaching the 12-aircraft delivery milestone.

The achievement was attained through the dedicated commitment by members of the Airbus team - including working through the Christmas holiday - and it culminated a concentrated effort that spanned several months.

Through December, a total of 13 A380s have been delivered by Airbus, with these aircraft now operated by Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Emirates. Since entering airline service in October 2007, the A380 fleet has surpassed the 21,000 revenue flight hour mark, carrying more than 890,000 passengers on well over 2,000 commercial flights.