EADS, the European aerospace firm, has ordered an audit of the Airbus A400M military transport programme to reassure customers, as it denied that the aircraft could be delayed by up to two years.

Thomas Enders and Louis Gallois, joint executive chairmen of EADS, reacted to persistent rumours of delays by revealing yesterday that they had requested an in-depth audit of the programme.

The audit, expected to be completed by the autumn, was designed to anticipate any hitches, a spokesman for EADS said. Mr Enders has already said that he thinks that the programme’s timetable is ambitious.

Speculation about progress on the A400M follows the revelation this year that first deliveries of Airbus’s new flagship aircraft, the A380, would be delayed by six months because of production difficulties.

An EADS spokesman said: “People think engineers will be taken off the A400M and transferred to the A380 programme and the A350XWB (extra wide body). But we are clear that we are not going to have any problems hitting our targets.”

Last month Richard Thompson, a senior vice-president at Airbus Military, insisted that the A400M would not have resources diverted from it. “The programme is fully funded and it is ring-fenced and there is no question of resources being taken away from A400M to go to A380 or the A350,” Mr Thompson said at the time.

He said that some subsidiary activities may be behind schedule but that the company would meet its major contractual milestones, such as the first flight.

But an aerospace analyst in London said: “Too many people, both from outside the company and inside, are saying that there are delays for there to be nothing wrong. I think there are going to be delays, and I think they will cost money.

“Realistically it’s going to be at least October, if not November or December, before we know the exact scale of the problem at the A400M programme, given that EADS will probably not start a review of the programme before it has completed the review of the A380.”

The A400M is due to make its first flight in January 2008 and the first delivery, to the French airforce, is due in October 2009.

The seven launch nations — Germany, France, Spain, the UK, Turkey, Belgium and Luxembourg — have together ordered 180 of the aircraft. South Africa has ordered eight, while Malaysia has ordered four.

Final assembly of the first set of wings for the first A400M military transport aircraft began at the Filton plant of Airbus UK last month. The RAF has ordered 25 of the transport aircraft but is not due to be one of the first customers to take delivery.

There are hopes that the A400M will fill a perceived gap in the market between large transport planes, such as Boeing’s C17 and its older C130 Super Hercules, and smaller transport aircraft made by firms such as Finnmecanica.

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