[PARIS, FRANCE] European aircraft maker Airbus is planning to launch the successor generation of A320s in 2014
and put them in service around 2018, French daily La Tribune reported yesterday.

In response, Airbus said there would be a successor generation to the A320 but only "when the technology was ready" and declined to confirm the timeline reported by La Tribune.

"There is nothing new (in this story) in light of what we have said in the past," a spokeswoman said yesterday.

Development cost of the project, called A30X, is estimated at between eight billion euros (S$17.1 billion) and 10 billion euros, the newspaper added without citing sources.

One of the new aircraft's targets is to reduce fuel consumption, it added.

However, the newspaper said the timing was not set in stone as it depended on what the competition did and the fluctuation of oil prices. Airbus is owned by European aerospace group

EADS whose shares were down 2.8 per cent at 11.99 euros, pulled down by a wider stock market fall. --Reuters

This article was first published in The Business Times on July 9, 2008.