Airbus and its A400M customers have three years to get everything from training to logistics in place.

Assuming Airbus Military meets its milestones on schedule, the first A400M military transport will be delivered for entry into service in October 2009, some 77 months after the program's launch on May 28, 2003.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, the design specification has been frozen, production drawings released, equipment suppliers chosen and suppliers contracted. Tooling is being delivered and dedicated production facilities have been and are being built. The final assembly line (FAL) in Seville, Spain, will be ready to accept tooling in mid-2006 and is scheduled to be officially commissioned at the end of this year. The first flight is slated for the beginning of 2008.

To date, 192 firm orders have been placed for the A400M from nine nations: Germany has ordered 60, France 50, Spain 27, the U.K. 25, Turkey 10, South Africa eight, Belgium seven, Malaysia four and Luxembourg one. Portugal withdrew from the project in 2003 while South Africa and Malaysia both joined in 2005.

Given this starting point, Airbus Military remains optimistic that sales could more than double in the next few years. Based on a world fleet of 2,300 medium-sized transport fleet aircraft, Airbus Military estimates a long-term worldwide demand for 1,400 A400M-type aircraft. Excluding the 780 potential replacements in the U.S., the CIS and China, the company believes around 435 will be needed in the rest of the world, of which Airbus Military expects a share of some 200 aircraft in addition to the 192 on order.

Support Structure

Given the potential of a large world fleet, Airbus Military is establishing its own Customer Services Directorate, rather than simply utilizing the Airbus civil network. Creating a dedicated military customer support unit was instigated early in 2005, following a review to establish who would do what in the A400M's Integrated Logistics Support program.

This review included consultations with EADS, Airbus and the program partners. The subsequent consensus was that Airbus Military should be the core, global provider of A400M customer services, while further discussions were undertaken to establish the support requirements of each customer nation and define areas of common need. The results formed the basis of a modified proposal that was presented to customers in May.

Karl-Heinz Fuchs, vice president customer services, who heads Airbus Military's Customer Services Directorate, said customers want a prime support contractor providing a single point of contact for the whole aircraft, including parts, repairs, documentation, technical support and maintenance.

"Today, air forces want to limit their involvement in maintenance," Fuchs explained, "so they tend to prefer a 'base-line support' concept, which allows them to do 'on-aircraft' or 'on-base' maintenance while industry takes care of everything else. Our concept is to take care of the complete aircraft, including the engines and propellers, with a Fleet Service Arrangement (FSA) covering the aircraft MRO, supply chain management and spares services (like leasing, pooling and exchanges) etc., which can be paid for by the flight-hour or in whatever way our customers prefer," said Fuchs.