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On Dec 14, `07, Qantas and Airbus celebrated another major milestone in the airframe manufacturer’s relatively short but successful existence - the delivery of its 5,000th aircraft, an A330-200, to Qantas at a special ceremony in Toulouse.

“This is an historical day for Airbus and the aviation industry in general, and I am delighted that Qantas, is here to share it with us,” said Airbus President and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Enders. “After a slow start, Airbus went from strength to strength, developing a highly successful airliner family which is well established on the market place.

The success of this family is also reflected by our very strong backlog of more than 3,000 aircraft including the all new A380 and A350. This gives us great confidence in the future”.

Thirty three years ago, in May 1974, Airbus delivered its very first aircraft, an A300B2, to first operator Air France. Nineteen years later, in 1993, Airbus delivered its first 1,000th aircraft, and it took it another six years to reach the 2000th in 1999.

Reflecting its subsequent rapid growth with an expanded aircraft family and more products on offer, the 3,000th Airbus aircraft was delivered in 2002, and only three years later, in September 2005, the 4,000th.

It needed only another two years to reach the 5,000th delivery milestone of Dec 14. Also, it took Airbus more than 30 years to deliver more than 50 per cent of all airliners of more than 100 seats delivered in one year. This was in 2005, and Airbus continued in the lead since.

It also took Airbus some 30 years after its initial creation in 1970 to bypass it main competitor in terms of sales and remain constantly at around half the market share, with more than 50 percent for five years in a row since 2001.

Airbus continues to considerably ramp up its production rates so as to reach ten A330/A340, 40 A320 Family planes and four A380s per month by 2010 in order to cope with very strong demand for its products. Its backlog of more than 3,000 aircraft should be delivered within the next five to six years only. More at Airbus.

Beijing, China — Nov 26, ‘07 — French industrialists visiting China with President Nicolas Sarkozy say they have finalised trade deals worth almost $30 billion (€20bn).

These include a delivery of 160 Airbus passenger planes to the value of about $15 billion (€10bn euros). And state-owned French energy firm Areva said it had signed a contract to build two nuclear reactors in China.

The Airbus deal to supply 110 of the firm’s single aisle A320 jet and 50 of the slightly bigger A330 plane will be welcome news to the European planemaker, which has struggled in the face of delays to new models and the weakening dollar.

The announcements came as Mr Sarkozy held a second meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

The reactors will be built in six years’ time in the south of the country and will start generating power in 2014.

They will be operated by a new company set up by Areva and its Chinese partner, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp, until 2026.

China is increasingly looking to nuclear energy to meet its growing demand for power and France is keen to make sure that it is involved in this process.

Airbus and its American archrival Boeing Co. predict China will become the world’s second-biggest aircraft market after the United States, with airlines buying 1,900 to 2,600 planes over the next two decades.

Airbus’ final assembly line in the Chinese city of Tianjian is due to deliver its first aircraft in early 2009. The plant is expected to be able to produce four A320s a month by 2011 and a total of about 300 A320 planes by 2016.

Following the signing of these deals, President Sarkozy will carry on with his official visit, his first to Asia since his election in May.

According to critics, the French President should be doing more during the trip to pressure China over its human rights record and use of the death penalty.

Some observers are calling on China to take a harder line with Iran over its nuclear programme. Mr Sarkozy has warned that it would be unacceptable if Tehran acquired nuclear weapons. Photo Credit: The AP.

Sydney–October 25, ‘07–The world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, has landed in Sydney on its first commercial flight, after a seven-hour journey from Singapore. A crowd of dozens of onlookers clapped and gasped as the largest airliner in the world, Singapore Airlines’ A380, landed at Sydney Airport this afternoon.

It can carry some 850 passengers, but took about 450 to Sydney. The superjumbo’s advent ends a reign of nearly four decades by the Boeing 747 as the world’s biggest airliner.

On the oberservation deck at the international terminal, there were shouts of “there it is” and pointing as the plane first came into view at about 5.25pm. Men, women and children craned their necks to catch a glance as it landed, with all manner of recording devices, video records, mobile phones and cameras, to document the moment.

While Airbus sees the future growth of air travel being focused on larger planes such as the A380 flying between major hubs, Boeing is aiming the mid-sized 787 at more flights between airports of all sizes.

Here are some interesting facts about the Airbus A380 superjumbo:
- The double-decker A380 measures 73 metres in length, or about 80 per cent of the smallest international football field
- The wing area is 845 square metres, enough to park 72 medium-sized cars on each wing
- It has 50 per cent more floor space than the next biggest aircraft, the Boeing 747 jumbo
- It can carry 853 passengers in an all-economy configuration
- The A380 has 530 kilometres of wiring, roughly equivalent to the distance between Frankfurt and Paris

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -October 24, ‘07- The world’s biggest jumbo jet was set to fly from Singapore on Thursday on its long-delayed first-ever commercial flight, as part of the Singapore Airlines daily service to Sydney.

The Airbus’ A380 superjumbo will leave the city-state’s Changi Airport at 8 a.m., returning to Singapore the following day. Passengers paid between $560 and $100,380 to be on the inaugural flight, after they had bid for the tickets as part of a charity auction to drum up publicity.

Airbus is set to hand over its first finished A380 “superjumbo” to Singapore Airlines on Monday, 18 months behind schedule. The construction of the A380, able to carry up to 800 passengers, has been beset by persistent and costly delays. It has also been overshadowed by allegations of insider trading against managers at parent company EADS. Mr Enders and other executives have been under scrutiny for their role in the sale of EADS shares before the announcement in June 2006 that the A380 project would be delayed, news which led to a slump in the company’s share price. The matter is currently being investigated by French prosecutors but Mr Enders, other senior managers and EADS shareholders have all denied any wrongdoing.Responding to a declaration by Arnaud Lagardere, Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Sunday he was not aware of the details of the sale by Lagardere shares to state-owned bank Caisse des Depots (CDC). He also said the government had acted “irreproachably” over the sale of the EADS shares by the Lagardere media group. Villepin further said that, he had kept the government at the time closely informed of his group’s plan to cut its stake in aerospace group EADS.