Airbus head: A380 made with 'manual labor'

Toulouse, France -- The Airbus A380 superjumbo jet delivered to Singapore Airlines Monday is one of 25 made with manual labor, the pan-European aerospace giant's president said.

"The first wave of 25 planes, including the five test aircraft, will in fact be produced in what is essentially manual labor," Thomas Enders told German magazine Der Spiegel.

"For the second wave, a modern, harmonized (information technology) system will be used which does, in fact, make industrial series production possible," he said.

He said the nearly 2-year-delayed A380 program to the world’s largest passenger plane would "only be over the hump once we manage to ramp up production in the next two years."

"We plan to deliver 13 aircraft next year and, by 2010, to reach four aircraft a month. These are ambitious goals," he said.

Enders also denied any wrongdoing following a preliminary report by the French Financial Markets Authority that pointed to "massive insider trading" at Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.

"It is a known fact that, in 2004 and in November 2005, I participated in a stock options program for executives that was approved by the supervisory board," he said.

"At the time, I saw no reason to assume that this sort of transaction could later be described as questionable," he said.

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