SHAREHOLDERS IN Airbus parent EADS have told an Amsterdam court the firm painted an overly rosy picture of its Airbus 380 aircraft development schedule, and requested an investigation into management policy.

Shareholders, including Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM), Deka Investment and two funds of Swiss bank UBS, together hold more than three million EADS shares.

They told the Dutch commercial court they suspected EADS, which has its statutory headquarters in the Netherlands, withheld data about delivery problems with the A380.

Production on the A380 superjumbo hit problems in 2006 when engineers found that wiring prepared in Germany did not fit aircraft being assembled in France due to incompatible software.

The aircraft entered service in December 2007 but is still slipping behind schedule and testing budgets due to customisation requested by buyers.

“A too rosy picture in combination with an aggressive marketing campaign has created expectations . . . which EADS has not been able to fulfil,” lawyer Flip Wijers, representing ILIM told the court.

French regulators last month cleared EADS and current and former bosses of insider trading and market abuse, ending a three-year inquiry that has cast a pall over the group. The investigation was triggered after EADS suffered a 26 per cent fall in its share price in June 2006 following an announcement of worsening delays in deliveries of the A380.

Lawyer Jeroen Ouwehand, representing EADS, denied the company had misinformed investors or withheld any information. He made reference to the French investigation which cleared EADS and its management last month.

The shareholders expressed concerns before the court that history would repeat itself with the A400M military transport aircraft. It has been derailed by technical problems and soaring costs.