Airbus A330neo on maiden flight

TOULOUSE: Airbus on Thursday began the maiden flight of its A330neo jetliner, an upgraded version of its profitable A330 line designed to sharpen competition with the latest version of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The wide-bodied, long-distance jet took off from the planemaker’s Toulouse headquarters under overcast skies, watched by top executives from Airbus and Britain’s Rolls-Royce (RR.L), which supplies the engines. In service since the 1990s, the A330 family is Airbus’s biggest-selling wide-body jet but the arrival of Boeing’s composite-body Dreamliner has eroded that advantage. — Reuters