DRESDEN, Germany, April 26 (UPI) -- European airplane giant Airbus has reacted to the harsh criticism of its A350 model by mulling design improvements of the plane.
"If we can improve (the A350), we will do that with profitability and the market in mind," Airbus chief executive officer Gustav Humbert said Tuesday in Dresden, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
Airbus will decide what to do about its A350 model design by mid-year. A complete overhaul and reconstruction of the plane, however, would be unthinkable, he said.
Major Airbus customers, such as Singapore Airlines and leasing company ILFC, have criticized the mid-sized long distance jet as hardly attractive, mulling a purchase of the 787 Dreamliner model from U.S. competitor Boeing instead.
The Dreamliner will be delivered by the end of 2008, Boeing has said, two years earlier than the A350.
Boeing has received as much as 350 orders from 26 customers for the Dreamliner, which is an entirely new development. The A350 is a modernization of the nearly 20-year-old A330 plane.
