Airbus A380 Cleared for Takeoff

Associated Press |By VERENA VON DERSCHAU 12.12.06, 11:13 AM ET

The Airbus A380 received certification from European and U.S. aviation authorities Tuesday, clearing its last official hurdle before the first 555-seater superjumbo is scheduled to be delivered to Singapore Airlines Ltd. next October.

Officials from the European Aviation Safety Agency and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration signed airworthiness certificates for the much-delayed plane at a ceremony at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, southern France.

Although the A380's clearance for commercial takeoff offered some much-needed good news for Airbus - which has fallen behind rival Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) Co. on orders this year - the celebration in Toulouse was dampened by developments in Paris.

Police in the French capital searched the headquarters of Airbus parent EADS and one of its main shareholders, stepping up their investigation into insider dealing linked to the A380 delays. Investigating magistrates Philippe Courroye and Xaviere Simeoni led the searches at the offices of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and Lagardere SCA, said judicial officials who asked not to be named, citing French rules on the confidentiality of investigations.

Paris prosecutors opened an investigation last month into possible insider dealing in EADS shares, five months after it emerged that Noel Forgeard, the defense group's ousted co-chief executive, and dozens of his former colleagues sold off stock in the weeks before the company ordered an internal study of the A380 delays. Lagardere and Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG (nyse: DCX - news - people ) also announced they were reducing their EADS stakes at around the same time.

EADS shares lost more than a quarter of their value in one day after the production problems were announced June 13. Investigators from France's Financial Markets Authority opened their own investigation and carried out searches at EADS and Airbus offices later the same month.

The A380's certification completes a test-flight program in which five A380 planes have notched up 2,600 flight hours since the closely watched first flight in April last year.

In the final phase of the program last month, an A380 completed 70,000 nautical miles (128,000 kilometers) of so-called "route proving" - a series of long-haul flights with short stopovers, designed to simulate airline operations in extreme conditions. The exercise took the plane to 10 airports in the Asia-Pacific region and included takeoffs and landings at high-altitude and snowbound runways.

Airbus has fallen behind Boeing on orders after leading every year since 2001, and its market share by value also has fallen further in 2006 - after slipping to 45 percent last year from 54 percent in 2004 - as Boeing's 777 and planned 787 mid-sized planes steadily eclipsed the older, less fuel-efficient Airbus A330 and A340.

The accumulated delays to the A380, totaling two years, have wiped euro4.8 billion (US$6.3 billion) off forecast EADS profits - a figure that includes estimates for the compensation paid to angry customers. FedEx Corp. (nyse: FDX - news - people ), the world's largest express transportation company, last month canceled its order for 10 A380s, and Airbus said Dec. 4 that further cancellations were still possible.

EADS shares were little changed at euro24.18 (US$31.86) in Paris trading.