First A400M Official Delivery Ceremony held in Seville

Seville, 30th September 2013: OCCAR

In a spectacular ceremony held at the A400M Final Assembly Line in Seville, the first production A400M was officially delivered to the French Air Force. In attendance at the ceremony were VIPs including the French Minister of Defence, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the CEO of EADS, Mr Tom Enders, a representative of the Government of Andalucia and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Felipe of Asturias, son of King Juan Carlos of Spain.

After a video presentation of the A400M’s production process and capabilities, the A400M was revealed in a lightshow of animations. Using the plane and factory door as a canvas, the audience was shown an animation of how the aircraft is built and then takes flight through a variety of missions in diverse environments to fully demonstrate the aircraft’s capabilities.
Mr Eric Huybrechts, Deputy Director of OCCAR-EA, made a speech during the ceremony, and explained how this ceremony marked a major milestone for A400M and indeed for OCCAR: “... The A400M programme and OCCAR were established at nearly the same time. OCCAR was created to provide an optimised framework for co-operative armaments programmes in Europe and to manage these in a more efficient way than before by adopting common rules. A400M constituted nothing less than a test case for our young organisation. It has passed that test, as a unique programme successfully meeting the requirements of all Participating States together. ...”

Mr Eric Huybrechts, OCCAR-EA Deputy Director

Mr Domingo Urena, CEO of Airbus Military, paid particular tribute to the role played by OCCAR in successful delivery of the programme. Finally the aircraft was symbolically handed over to the French Minister of Defence. The French delegation then departed on one of the A400M planes to a further ceremony at the A400M’s French home of Orleans.