“A350 XWB is on track” and 4 Lessons-Learnt by Fabrice Bregier.

Fabrice Bregier said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos that “the A350 XWB is on track” and that it has time to make changes that may arise from an investigation into the fault that grounded Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

• Lesson learnt 1: supply chain.

Bregier, said Airbus had learned lessons from its troubled launch of the A380 superjumbo, including the need to limit the amount of work outsourced to other companies. "Sometimes we went too far on outsourcing work," Bregier said. "We need to make sure we control the architecture of the aircraft so as to have the safest and best aircraft."

• Lesson learnt 2: personal involvement in the challenges.

Mr. Bregier said he was taking personal charge of ensuring the success of the A350, which is due to make its first flight in the middle of 2013. He also said that certifying any new aircraft is “very difficult” because of “more and more stringent” rules applied by the authorities.

• Lesson learnt 3: Don´t panic. First maturity, second schedule.

"If I take the A350, we drew all the possible lessons from the A380," Bregier said. "And if by chance there is a decision regarding the 787 which would impact us, we would of course embark on that. And we have plenty of time."

• Lesson learnt 4: the launch customers are in the Middle East (Qatar Airways) and Asia (Singapore Airlines).

Bregier said the global environment was challenging, but growth in markets for new fleets in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America was more than making up for the recession in Europe.

"We are in a growing market and if I could deliver aircraft faster I would have more customers," he said. "Europe is now only 14% of our backlog, it was 50% 15 years ago."

 

Based on the article “Airbus CEO says A350 on track” published in CNN