Jean de Belot, a spokesman for Mr. Forgeard, said Tuesday that Mr. Forgeard was confident he would be exonerated, stressing that the regulator had abandoned the majority of its original complaints against the executives and the company.  “There were three charges, now there is only one charge,” Mr. Belot said. “We are encouraged by this development, and we are certain that the last complaint will be dropped, as it has been dropped against the industrial shareholders.”  EADS itself faces a fine of €700,000 for failing to release information quickly enough about the delays in A380 deliveries.  Those delays eventually stretched to more than two years, resulting in more than €5 billion in losses for the company.  In April 2008, the Financial Markets Authority accused 17 EADS and Airbus executives of knowing as far back as June 2005 that profit was likely to decline, largely as a result of rising development costs and production problems at Airbus, inside information that the regulator said should have kept them from selling EADS shares. That charge has now been dropped, according to people with direct knowledge of the regulator’s report.  The authority, these people said, has also abandoned the allegation that the executives were aware of the likelihood of significant development delays to the A350 jet, a long-range midsize plane intended to compete with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, and which was still in the early design stage at the time.  The regulator’s sanctions committee is now focusing its efforts on proving what the accused executives would have known about the troubled A380 program when they sold their stock in March 2006, barely three months before the problems with that aircraft program became public on June 13. The shares plunged 26 percent the next day.  According to the person who had seen the regulator’s report, the sanctions committee has recommended that fines also be paid by Jean-Paul Gut, a former EADS chief operating officer and board member; Andreas Sperl, a former financial director at Airbus; John Leahy, Airbus’s chief commercial aircraft salesman; Olivier Andriès, a former Airbus vice president; Erik Pillet, a former Airbus director of human resources; and Alain Flourens, a manager in charge of Airbus’s main engineering centers.  Neither the Financial Markets Authority nor EADS would confirm the contents of the regulator’s report.  In a statement, EADS said that it would continue to defend itself against the allegations and reaffirmed its confidence in the managers concerned.  “The principle of presumption of innocence prevails until any final decision is taken,” EADS said.  A spokeswoman for the markets authority, who declined to be named citing agency policy, said that the accused managers would have two months to respond to the charges and that a hearing of their cases would take place in the autumn. A final ruling is expected before the end of the year.  EADS said earlier Tuesday that its net income for the three months ending June 30 rose to €208 million, or $297 million, from €118 million a year earlier, on revenue of €8.1 billion.  Earnings before interest and taxes climbed to €656 million from €389 million, thanks to slightly lower expenses related to delivery delays for the A380.  EADS hinted Tuesday that its A400M transporter — now almost four years behind schedule and €5 billion over budget — would likely remain a financial albatross for the company for some time.  The seven European governments that ordered the first 180 A400Ms in 2003 agreed last week to renegotiate the terms of the €20 billion contract, which originally foresaw deliveries beginning this year.  Because of delays in engine development and other problems, however, the A400M has still not flown, and initial test flights are not expected to begin until around the end of the year or early 2010.  EADS has requested a moratorium on A400M cancellations through the end of the year to work out a new delivery schedule and a financing arrangement under which more of the development costs would be borne by governments.  Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey have paid Airbus €5.7 billion, which the company says has already been spent, to develop the A400M. EADS wrote off €2.3 billion related to the program in 2008 and said the A400M program’s net cash outflow so far this year was €400 million.  The group said it had written off a further €71 million on the A400M in the quarter, on top of a €120 million charge booked in the first three months of the year.  EADS left the door open to further significant charges later this year, saying that the “range and magnitude” of the write-downs would be known only after A400M contract renegotiations were completed near the end of 2009.  EADS said Airbus, which generates more than two-thirds of the group’s revenue and 58 percent of operating profit, continues to have a significant backlog of orders for commercial aircraft, which should help to keep money flowing to the company in the near term.  But the company warned that the global economic downturn and declines in air passenger traffic still showed “no clear sign of stabilization.”  EADS shares rose 2.52 percent in European trading to close at €13.04.  “You have to bear in mind that this is still going to be a relatively good year because Airbus production is running at peak levels and the currency developments so far have been favorable,” said Nick Cunningham, an analyst at Evolution Securities in London. “It’s from here on out that life gets a lot more difficult.”The International Air Transport Association forecast in June that deliveries by Airbus and its American rival, Boeing, could drop by as much as 30 percent in 2010.EADS said it expected Airbus to secure about 300 aircraft orders in 2009, down from 777 in 2008. Deliveries are expected to be “at least” in line with the 483 planes delivered last year. The company said it expected to deliver 14 A380s this year, up from 12 in 2008.For the first half, EADS said earnings before interest and taxes fell by 23 percent to €888 million, on revenues of €20.2 billion.
The Financial Markets Authority recommended fines for seven executives, led by Noël Forgeard, but absolved the company's former co-chief, Thomas O. Enders, and 10 others.