EADS Says A350 on track

EADS chief Louis Gallois has said that the A350 program has begun eating into its contingency time, but is still maintaining its schedule.

Gallois made the statement in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

“For the time being we’re sticking to our delivery schedule, but it’s tense, and we have eaten most of the buffer we had."

Gallois added that "Boeing is a very good company with a good technical background and when we see difficulties they have with the B787 program we have to be very cautious".

Airbus is currently planning for the A350 to make its first flight in 2012 with first customer delivery to Qatar Airways planned for 2013.

Airbus holds orders for 530 A350s from 33 customers.