Airbus and parent EADS responded to increasing criticism over A380 program delays announced last week, with the focus intensifying on EADS Co-CEO Noel Forgeard's sale of ?2.5 million ($3.2 million) in stock options three months prior to EADS' stock sinking 26% on June 14 on news of the next-generation aircraft program's setback.Forgeard, who served as Airbus CEO until last year, told Europe 1 radio that he first learned of potential new problems with the A380 program in April and claimed the stock sale was "an unfortunate coincidence."

Meanwhile, Airbus officials reassured airlines that the A380 still will be a success even as EADS said it was launching an internal investigation into the program's delays. Airbus COO and Chief Commercial Officer John Leahy told reporters last week at the company's technical press briefing in Toulouse that the A380 remains "on track" for certification later this year and that there are "no design issues" that should concern airline customers, adding that the 6-7 month delay in deliveries resulted strictly from backups in installing wiring (ATWOnline, June 14). He conceded it is "embarrassing that we have a bottleneck in wiring" but insisted the problem is not comparable to having issues with major components such as wings or with the design of the fuselage itself.

"The aircraft is very sound," Airbus President and CEO Gustav Humbert said last week. "In fact, we have all the reason to be very proud with our A380, and all airline pilots who have already flown the aircraft share our enthusiasm...So we are not concerned about the development aspect at all. It is clearly on the industrial side that we have a shortcoming."

But that shortcoming has sent shockwaves throughout the airline industry and stock markets and is expected to set EADS operating earnings back by ?500 million annually over the next four years. Humbert said airline executives he spoke with were unhappy "to say the least" but remain "keen to put [the A380] into service."

"I am fully aware of what this means to our customers," he added. "As an industrial man, I don't want to hide behind the fact that new, massively complicated projects of such scale all too often run into difficulties and that hardly any new aircraft was ever delivered when originally expected." Recovering from the setback is Airbus's "top, top priority," he said.