Identify the strategic and financial risks in the Airbus A380 project and suggest how they should be assessed and managed. The biggest bet placed by Europe’s aerospace industry was officially launched in January 2005. The Airbus A380 – a twin-decked behemoth with seats for 555 passengers – was rolled out in Toulouse and gives the company a complete range of models to challenge Boeing, ending the lucrative monopoly Boeing has had in the very large aircraft market for 35 years.

Noel Forgeard, Airbus chief executive, says the company had made a ‘successful metamorphosis to a world leader’.

He claims the group is almost twice as profitable as Boeing’s commercial airplanes division, helped by a ‘huge, relentless effort to reduce unit cost and grow our productivity:

it is the reason why we can gain market share and grow profitably.’

Boeing has certainly looked increasingly vulnerable. The group’s critics say its long years of success led to complacency and it allowed the pace of product innovation to slow as it prioritised short-term earnings over investment.

‘Boeing has struggled with the development work needed to take the company into the 21st century,’ says Tim Clark, president of Emirates, the Dubai-based airline that is one of the world’s most important buyers of long-haul aircraft and will be the biggest operator of the Airbus A380.