Airbus remains committed to A400M despite crash

The chief executive of Airbus Group has said the company remains committed to its A400M military plane following Saturday's crash in Spain.

Four airbus employees were killed and two seriously injured when an A400M plane crashed on a test flight.

Shares in the aerospace and defence firm have fallen 4.5% in Paris to €60.54.

All A400M aircraft have been grounded but Airbus says it will press ahead with a test flight on Tuesday.

In a letter to staff seen by the Reuters news agency, Tom Enders said testing would go ahead as planned to "demonstrate to our customers, the air forces, that we fully trust this great transport plane and are as committed to the programme and the further ramp-up of deliveries and capabilities as ever".

Mr Enders asked staff to observe a minute's silence at midday for the two test pilots and two engineers who lost their lives on Saturday.

The A400M was developed at a cost of €20bn ($22.3bn; £14.5bn) to give Europe's NATO partner independent access to heavy aircraft for military and humanitarian operations.

But it has been hit by delays and cost overruns.

European governments injected more money into the project in 2010. But further delays and technical problems resurfaced last year, leading to management changes.

In February, Airbus reported €551m in additional costs relating to the new A400M delays. The total written off over the lifetime of the project is now more than €4.75bn.

Analysts Berenberg warned further delays would "almost certainly" hamper Airbus Group's ability to sell the A400M in the export markets, which it said was the only way the aircraft would "ever make any money".

The crashed aircraft was due to be delivered to Turkey and was on its maiden test flight when it ploughed into a field one mile north of Seville's San Pablo airport.

Spain said it had recovered the two flight recorders.