Five years ago the champagne corks were popping in Toulouse rather than in Seattle with Qantas, the Australian flag carrier, again at the centre of a frantic tug of war between the world’s two giant commercial aerospace groups Boeing and Airbus.

In late 2000 it was Airbus that triumphed winning an order from Qantas for 12 A380 superjumbos. The deal was a milestone for Airbus. It allowed it to break the 41-year hold of Boeing on the Qantas fleet and was the order that finally clinched the backing of the Airbus shareholders, EADS and BAE Systems, for the industrial launch of the A380, the world’s biggest commercial passenger jet.