Loius Gallois, the chief executive of Airbus, signalled the return of the European aircraft manufacturer to the forefront of the industry today with a commitment to spend €11bn developing a new plane.

Following Monday’s $45 billion order deluge and a further $7 billion in new sales today, M Gallois told the Paris Air Show: “I can tell you with full confidence that Airbus is back.”

Airbus has endured a torrid year losing €572 million, reversing a profit of 2.3 billion the year before, and its flagship A380 superjumbo project has been delayed by two years. The company is also engaged in a controversial restructuring that will see 10,000 of the company’s 55,000 jobs go.

Airbus, which employs 11,000 in the UK, is hoping to use the Paris show at Le Bourget aerodrome to regain momentum and confidence.

Orders for new planes have deliberately been held until this week in order to generate maximum publicity but Airbus’s commitment to the new A350 is the most significant demonstration of its determination to keep pressure on its rival Boeing.

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner has secured over $90 billion in orders and is the fastest selling new aircraft in history. The US-based company announced a further 63 new 787 sales worth $8.8 billion yesterday in a deal with the International Lease Financing Corporation (ILFC).

Airbus has been concentrating on its A380, a double-decker plane that seats over 550 people, and is missing out on sales that are going to the mid-sized 787.

Its proposed competitor to the 787, the A350, has been redesigned twice after airline customers said it was not good enough.

Airbus confirmed today that it would spent $11 billion developing the relaunched A350 and will seek loans from the UK, French, German and Spanish governments to help launch the aircraft.

There is a dispute among the governments involved over how this money is to be provided with the UK rejecting loans and the French unhappy with the alternative, a hybrid bond.

M Gallois is also pushing the governments to increase their research and development funding of Airbus from €55 million a year to about €200 million. A number of governments, including the UK, are understood to be balking at this demand and a compromise is yet to be worked out.

Airbus yesterday committed itself to a timetable of production for the A350XWB (Extra Wide Body) with final assembly beginning in 2011 and the first flight in early 2012. The first delivery to customers will be early 2013.

This is sooner than many analysts expected and Airbus said it had been able to pull forward its development by at least six months after introducing new operating processes.

This is still five years after Boeing delivers its first 787 but M Gallois said yesterday that the extra development time would allow Airbus to deliver a better product.

The A350XWB will be five inches wider than the 787 to give economy-class seats more shoulder room. The Rolls Royce-powered plane will cruise at Mach 0.85 and be 53 per cent made from composite, carbon-fibre materials.

This will mean the 280-seat plane is lighter than current jets, making it more fuel efficient. Airbus is forecasting that the A350XWB will be 30 per cent more efficient than current aircraft and a 4 per cent advance on the 787.

The A350XWB jumped from 13 firm orders to 127 in the first two days of the Paris Air Show as carriers like Qatar Airways backed the new plane.

John Leahy, Airbus’s chief salesman, said he expected the A350XWB to have more than 200 orders, worth $41 billion at list prices, by the end of this year.

Airbus announced more new orders yesterday from Air Asia for 15 A330s with another 10 on the way. US-based Intrepid Aviation bought 20 A330 cargo planes.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive