Airbus parent company approves launch of new A350 jet

Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company today approved the official launch of the new Airbus A350 plane, designed to rival Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

EADS, which owns 80 per cent of Airbus, announced the industrial launch of the mid-sized jet in a statement issued following a board meeting in Amsterdam.

“With the official industrial launch of the A350, Airbus will now be able to book firm orders and expects around 200 of these by the end of the year,” EADS said.

Airbus has designed the A350 to compete with Boeing’s fuel-efficient, long-range 787, and hopes to begin deliveries in 2010, two years behind the Boeing plane. The industrial launch of the A350 program had initially been planned earlier this year.

Airbus said in June that a trans-Atlantic trade dispute over aircraft subsidies had delayed the decision. European Union and US negotiators are trying to work out a settlement to the dispute, which began last year when Washington tore up a 1992 pact on aircraft subsidies and filed a World Trade Organisation complaint against EU government aid to Airbus.