Airbus chief Tom Enders says the airframer still intends to decide by the end of the year whether to offer a re-engined A320 family, a timescale he announced at July's Farnborough air show.

"We are confident that within the next eight weeks we will make a decision," he told an Aviation Club luncheon in London on 21 October.

Enders also said that the manufacturer's order intake "is better than we expected at the start of the year" - without committing to a final 2010 prediction - and repeated calls for the US to give up its pursuit of the European Union through the World Trade Organisation over launch aid to Airbus, labelling the dispute "absurd" at a time when other countries were muscling into the duopoly in large commercial airliners.

Source: Flight International