A380 clients expect minor impact from the programme’s schedule revision.

Clients awaiting deliveries of Airbus’s A380 say that the plane maker’s latest revision of the manufacturing schedule is likely to have minor impact on their orders. Singapore Airlines, which has so far received four of the 19 double-deckers it ordered, expects to take delivery of its fifth jet in June and the sixth in September. However, the airline says that, on Airbus’s advice, it anticipates “some small delays” in deliveries scheduled for 2009. Malaysian Air, meanwhile, expects to receive its six A380s on schedule in 2011.

Ike Skelton, Democrat President of the Armed Forces Committee of the US House of Representatives, said

Ike Skelton, Democrat President of the Armed Forces Committee of the US House of Representatives, said he sought a review of the role of any illegal subsidies in Boeing’s loss of the US Air Force tanker contract to a rival consortium formed by EADS and Northrop Grumman. According to one of his aides, Mr Skelton said that, should the WTO rules an illegal subsidy was given to “any large manufacturer”

Airbus accelerates its “dollarisation” strategy with the A350 XWB programme.

As revealed by Le Figaro yesterday, Airbus selected US-based Spirit Aerosystems to build part of the fuselage for its new A350 XWB. This is the latest example of Airbus’s will to increase the share of its purchases in dollar. Thus, the A350 XWB programme will involve many US suppliers: Goodrich, Rockwell Collins, Honeywell, Moog and Hamilton Sunstrand have already won major contracts for this plane. Meanwhile, only a few euro-based suppliers have been awarded contracts so far, except for Thales and Liebherr, and possibly Latecoere soon. Reuters (14/05), Les Echos, La Croix, France Soir

Power8. Sale of the Filton and Laupheim sites should be finalised “in the few coming weeks”.

EADS announced that the sale of the Filton (UK) and Laupheim (Germany) sites should be finalised “in the few coming weeks”. On unveiling the group’s quarterly results, Louis Gallois insisted that EADS had not given up on its idea to sell the five other Airbus sites. “The process will go on, but it will take a little longer than planned because of the international financial context”.

EADS returned to profitability in the first quarter in spite of the weak dollar.

The EADS share surged 5.85% yesterday, at €16.64, thus scoring the best CAC40 performance. The group announced a € 285M net profit for the first quarter, beating analysts’ expectations. Its turnover rose 10% to € 9.9Bn, lifted by record deliveries at Airbus (123 aircraft). For the full year, Louis Gallois confirmed the target of a € 1.8Bn operating profit on a turnover “superior to € 40Bn”. He added that Airbus’s target of 470 aircraft deliveries in 2008 was not called into question and that orders are expected to slow in coming quarters.

Latecoere confirmed its full-year turnover target.

In spite of delays to the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 programmes, Latecoere confirmed its full-year turnover target. In a statement, the Toulouse-based supplier confirmed its target of a 10% growth in turnover for 2008, but acknowledged that the cancellation of negotiations with Airbus over the acquisition of the Meaulte and Saint-Nazaire sites would lead to exceptional charges affecting its annual net profit. Reuters (14/05)

ATR might make an entry into the Japanese market soon.

Japanese import-export company Itochu Corporation said yesterday that it would represent ATR in Japan so as to market two regional aircraft models: the ATR72-500 and ATR42-500. The company hopes to win 20 to 50 orders for the planes. AFP (14/05)