Airbus has appointed Mario Heinen to head up its troubled A380 programme, which has exceeded its budget and been beset by delays.

The appointment, announced yesterday, is the first significant move made by chief executive Christian Streiff since his appointment in July.

The news came as the aircraft, the largest commercial jetliner ever built, made its maiden passenger flight. Airbus employees made up the majority of the 474 passengers on board the first of a series of test flights this week.

Mr Heinen, who has until now been in charge of the A320, will replace Charles Champion with immediate effect.

Mr Champion has been named special adviser to Mr Streiff, who was appointed after Gustav Humbert stepped down as Airbus chief executive.

Mr Humbert was a casualty of the management crisis that followed the group's surprise profit warning in June along with Noel Forgeard, the French chief executive of parent company EADS.

"In four years as head of the Airbus single-aisle programme, Mario Heinen demonstrated great leadership and outstanding management capabilities in the extremely successful ramp-up of this programme," said Mr Streiff.

"I would like to thank Charles Champion on behalf of all employees at Airbus for his exceptional contribution to bring the A380 up to the final stages of certification. I'm pleased that he will continue to share his vast experience with us at Airbus in his new advisory role."

Analysts said the move showed Mr Streiff was taking control. "He is beginning to show his hand a little," said one.

Mr Streiff said at the Farnborough Air Show in July that he wanted 100 days to study the situation at Airbus before starting to take any action.

By the close, shares in EADS, which owns the majority of Airbus, had fallen 0.9 per cent to €23.08.

As well as the delays to the flagship A380, Airbus's long-term prospects have been clouded by the impact on competitiveness of the dollar's weakness against the euro, which favours Boeing, its US rival.

In addition, BAE Systems, which owns a 20 per cent stake, is expected to decide this week whether to sell its stake to EADS for €2.75 billion, the unexpectedly low valuation put on the holding by Rothschild, the investment bank.

BAE is due to consider the results of an audit of the Airbus business from PwC, the auditors and management consultants. BAE commissioned the study after Rothschild came up with its shock valuation.

The group had planned to offload the stake and reinvest in its core defence business. - (Financial Times service)