The president of European planemaker Airbus said on Saturday he hoped to win around 50 orders for the new wide-body A350 jet by next June.
The EUR4 billion (USD$5.29 billion) A350 project -- a spin-off from the A330 model -- is Airbus's response to Boeing's first new plane of the 21st century, the 7E7 which is due in the air in 2008.
"I hope to get in some 50 orders for the A350 from now till the Salon du Bourget (plane fair), in June 2005," Noel Forgeard told Le Monde daily in an interview.
Airbus won approval from its shareholders on Friday to unleash a fresh marketing battle against rival Boeing by seeking orders for the A350.
Philippe Camus, co-CEO of Airbus parent EADS, said the A350 was part of a long-term strategy for Airbus, taking both companies' needs and technological progress into account.
"We hope to have orders very quickly," Camus told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
Boeing has 52 orders for the 7E7 out of an original target of 200 by the end of this year, and Airbus made plain it saw at least half of the remaining 148 as low-hanging fruit.
"In the short term, we stay ahead of Boeing in terms of plane deliveries," Camus said. "We will deliver between 350 and 360 aircraft in 2005, that's above Boeing's forecasts."
Turning to the construction of the A380, Forgeard said research and development costs for the 555-seat double-decker would be higher than expected.
"It is right that on the costs for research and development, the estimate of USD$10.7 billion will be exceeded," he said.
Asked whether the higher costs were in the range of between EUR500 million and EUR1.5 billion (USD$661.5 million - USD$1.98 billion), he said: "We are actually in this range, and this penalizes the economic balance of the program very little."
"We will reach all our economic objectives, including the 10 percent profit regarding turnover for 2005, despite the surcharges expected," he said.
Forgeard said the firm had taken several measures which helped it cope with the fall in the value of the dollar. "All these measures are placing us in a very good situation to assure our profitability until 2008," he said.
Forgeard said he was not in a campaign to become co-president of EADS. "I am leading no campaign and I'm not responsible for this agitation. The decision to nominate a French co-president is up to Arnaud Lagardere, and him alone," he said.
EADS co-CEO Camus faces a fierce challenge from Forgeard for the top French job at EADS, where executive power is shared between French and German officials.
Asked about the reports about his succession by Le Journal du Dimanche, Camus referred to his achievements over the last five years and added: "As to what concerns the due dates to come, I leave it up to the shareholders to decide."
The French state and Lagardere own 15 percent each of EADS which was formed in 2000 during a restructuring of European aerospace activities. Daimler Chrysler owns 30 percent.
