Airbus could take more than a decade to catch up with Boeing’s product development, warned Christian Streiff, chief executive, on Wednesday as he launched the first stage of a radical restructuring of Europe’s flagship aircraft maker.

One day after EADS, Airbus’s parent company, issued a €4.8bn profits warning arising from the A380 superjumbo programme, which is facing two years of delays, Mr Streiff revealed that the A400M military transport aircraft, another crucial programme, could also face rising costs and possible delays.