After the Type Certification and Entry Into Service of the A350-900 in 2014, Airbus will focus on the improvement of the A350 family with the A350-1000 as first priority and the Regional variant study. Decision on the possible double stretched A350-1100 model and the smaller A350-800 will be analyzed in 2014 too.

European aerospace group EADS pledged to shun risky investments and new plane programs as it looked to bury the ghost of troubled projects and promised investors a smoother ride in coming years. “We will not allocate resources to areas where growth is difficult to access,” said EADS strategy chief Marwan Lahoud.

The head of its Airbus civil planemaking division, Fabrice Bregier, said that after stabilizing production problems on the A380 and the A400M military airlifter -which had caused the company significant headaches in recent years- flight testing and development of the A350, were progressing well ahead of first delivery planned in the 4th quarter of 2014.

“We are on track. You know the risks, but the risks are reducing,” Bregier told an investor forum in London on 12/December.

After it delivers its first all-new passenger jet in a decade, Airbus will focus on enhancements to existing models.

“Nobody sees brand-new developments in the next 10 years or even more,” Bregier said. “The focus is on the improvement of our (in-production) series programs and there is still a lot to be extracted from them.

“The good news for you is that it is much less risky to improve existing platforms than develop brand-new aircraft”.

He did not say what impact this would have on research spending but said the company would also pursue new technology.


Based on the article “Airbus to focus on current products and reduce risk” published in Reuters