A YEAR ago the Airbus A380 Superjumbo soared into the skies above Toulouse on its maiden flight.

Down below, Tony Blair, President Chirac, Gerhard Schröder, then the German Chancellor, and thousands of onlookers hailed the world’s biggest passenger jet as an emblem of European integration.

But today the A380 has become a symbol of all that is wrong with Europe — incompetence, misplaced ambition, greed and bickering.

Far from uniting Europe, it is driving a wedge between France and Germany, with Berlin complaining of the French penchant for state intervention and cronyism, and Paris debnouncing Germans’ stiffling desire for concensus.

With executives and industrialists facing a series of investigations into the events that made them richer — and ordinary shareholders poorer — the aircraft has also propelled its manufacturer into the greatest crisis of its history.

The implosion was sparked by Airbus’s announcement last week of a six-month delay in delivering the A380s ordered by the world’s airlines from next year. That will cost the firm €2 billion in earnings and possibly as much again in penalties.

Investors were stunned, not just because of the delays but because Airbus had repeatedly denied until last week that anything was wrong. Within 24 hours, shares in its parent, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (Eads), had fallen by more than a quarter, wiping €5 billion off its value.

Worse, it emerged that Noel Forgeard, the joint chief executive of Eads, had made a €2.5 million profit by selling shares in the group in March after exercising stock options.

His three children made €1.4 million each, while four Eads’ executives made a total of €3.2 million.

In April, the group’s two main private shareholders, the German car maker, DaimlerChrysler, and the French publishing and aerospace group, Lagardère, also cashed in — selling 7.5 per cent holdings.

Eads managers and shareholders have denied acting on the basis of inside information. “I didn’t have any privileged information at all”’ M Forgeard said as he fought for his job this weekend. “The share price suited me, I called my banker and I told him to sell. That’s all.”

But as stock market watchdogs in France and Germany announced inquiries and Eads started an internal investigation, the line of defence adopted by M Forgeard has provoked a deep rift with Germany.

He is blaming German factories for the delays, German middle-management for the confusion and the German head of Airbus, Gustav Humbert, for failing to alert investors earlier.

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