Also Calls BAE's Rush To Sell Airbus Stake "Real Surprise"

Airbus listens to its customers... that's the message Gustav Humbert wanted to send Monday, as he announced the European plane maker is ready to discuss ways it can improve the design of the upcoming A350 midsized range airliner.

"We are ready to make extra efforts to respond to their expectations," Humbert said, during the inauguration of a new manufacturing site in Toulouse.

The news comes as Singapore Airlines joins Emirates in criticizing Airbus's original designs for two of its key products -- the A350, and the next-generation A340-600 variant.

Increasing market weakness against those airliners' Boeing counterparts -- the upcoming 787 Dreamliner, and the 777-200LR -- is considered the reason for the criticisms. Sales of both Boeing jets are increasingly outstripping those of comparative Airbus models.

"Sales figures from our competitor of long-haul planes are starting to be better than ours, but this is a very recent development," Humbert said. "All the same, we have 182 commitments for the A350, and Boeing sales benefit from the fact that they launched the 787 earlier," Humbert said.

As was reported in Aero-News last month, ILFC chief executive Steven Udvar-Hazy was first to state on record that Airbus's plans for the A350 needed to be reconsidered, encouraging the European consortium to scrap its plans -- essentially, to offer a heavily modified A330-based plane as its 787 competitor -- in favor of a clean sheet design.

Boeing has over 100 more orders for the Dreamliner than Airbus has for the A350. The model is also expected to be on the market two years before the Airbus plane -- and that's before any redesign.

Reuters also reports Humbert acknowledged BAE Systems' push to sell off its 20 percent stake in Airbus, relinquishing sole control of the plane maker to EADS. Humbert said that while the sale was expected, BAE's rush to sell of its stake -- rumored to be fueled in part by the company's reluctance to inherit any further development costs on the A340 or A350 -- was "a real surprise."

BAE Systems maintains the sale is meant to give the company funds to make defense company acquisitions in the US.

FMI: www.airbus.com