Airbus executive vice president programmes, Tom Williams, told the same audience that customers were angry at the A380 delays caused by unexpected problems with the complexity of the aircraft’s wiring and knock-on effects.

He said: “The first actions were taken last year to resolve bottlenecks, but they were not sufficient. You can imagine that customer reactions have been very bad. So it is a significant problem with a very strong reaction from customers.”

And he outlined seven key measures taken to address the situation: