[11] The B11 was originally planned to take the place of narrow-body Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8s then in commercial use, but would later evolve to target the long-range, wide-body trijet replacement market.

Another factor was the split preference of those within Airbus and, more importantly, those of prospective customers; twinjets were favoured in North America, quad-jets desired in Asia, and operators had mixed views in Europe.

In south-western England, BAe made a £7 million investment in a three-storey technical centre with 15,000 m2 (161,000 sq ft) of floor area at Filton.

[27] France saw the biggest investments, with Aérospatiale constructing a new Fr.2.5 billion ($411 million) final-assembly plant adjacent to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in Colomiers; by November 1988, the pillars for the new Clément Ader assembly hall had been erected.

Airbus issued subcontracts to companies in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Greece, Italy, India, Japan, South Korea, Portugal, the United States, and the former Yugoslavia.

[33][35] At that time, the order book stood at 130 aircraft from ten customers, including lessor International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC).

[42] An investigation by an internal branch of Direction Générale d'Aviation concluded that the accident resulted from slow response and incorrect actions by the crew during the recovery.

[45] Deliveries to Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Thai Airways International were postponed to address delamination of the composite materials in the PW4168 engine's thrust reverser assembly.

[52] On 4 January of that year, a Malaysia Airlines A330-300, while undergoing regular maintenance at Singapore Changi Airport, was consumed by a fire that started in the right-hand main undercarriage well.

Shortened and keeping its fly-by-wire cockpit and systems, with a cleaner A300-600 wing with sealed control surfaces and winglets and at least two new engine types among the GE CF6-80, the PW4000 and the A340-500/600's Trent 500 aimed for 5% better SFC than the A300-600.

As the name indicated, this proposed variant would have had a lower maximum takeoff weight of 202 tonnes (445,000 lb), coupled with de-rated engines, giving a range of 7,400 km (4,000 nmi; 4,600 mi).

[63] Initially, the GE90 was only one of three Boeing 777 options, and GE Aviation then-CEO Brian H. Rowe would have paid for the development of putting it on an A330; however, Airbus' strategy for long-haul was the four-engine A340, missing the market favouring twins.

This raises the aircraft's nose so that the cargo deck is level during loading, as the standard A330's landing gear results the plane having a nose-down attitude while on the ground.

[104] The failure of International Aero Engines' radical ultra-high-bypass V2500 "SuperFan", which had promised around 15 per cent fuel burn reduction for the A340, led to multiple enhancements including wing upgrades to compensate.

[107] The fin, rudder, elevators, horizontal tail plane (used as fuel tank), flaps, ailerons, and spoilers are made of composite materials, making 10% of the structure weight.

[66] To overcome the standard A330's nose-down body angle on the ground, the A330F uses a revised nose undercarriage layout to provide a level deck during cargo loading.

[131] And unlike the passenger variant, the A330-200F does not offer a centre tank as a standard equipment in order to save the weight of the inerting system, reducing fuel capacity by 41,560 litres.

[136][137] Powered by two General Electric CF6-80E1, Pratt & Whitney PW4000, or Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, the 63.69 m (208 ft 11 in) long −300 has a range of 11,750 km (6,340 nmi; 7,300 mi), typically carries 277 passengers with a 440 exit limit and 32 LD3 containers.

[150] The A330P2F freighter conversion programme was launched at the 2012 Singapore Airshow with the support of Airbus, their Dresden-based Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) joint venture and Singapore-based engineering firm ST Aerospace.

[161] The A330-900 made its maiden flight on 19 October 2017 and received its EASA type certificate on 26 September 2018; it entered service with its launch customer, TAP Air Portugal, on 15 December 2018.

[151] In November 2017, 1,190 were transporting passengers with 106 airlines (the top 29 operated two-thirds of the fleet), consisting of 530 -200s and 660 A330-300s, mainly high-gross-weight, with 36 original shorter-range A330-300s, half of them built since January 2010.

[2][183] The A330's first fatal accident occurred on 30 June 1994 near Toulouse on a test flight when an Airbus-owned A330-300 crashed while simulating an engine failure on climbout, killing all seven on board.

Malfunctioning pitot tubes provided an early focus for the investigation,[186] as the aircraft involved had Thales-built "–AA" models known to indicate faulty airspeed data during icing conditions.

Three days later, a Cathay Pacific A330 on climbout during a Bangkok–Hong Kong flight experienced an oil pressure drop and a resultant engine spool down, forcing a return to Bangkok.

[205] On 7 October 2008, Qantas Flight 72, an A330-300, suffered a rapid loss of altitude in two sudden uncommanded pitch-down manoeuvres while 150 km (81 nmi; 93 mi) from the RAAF Learmonth air base in northwestern Australia.

[206] It was later determined that the incident, which caused 106 injuries, 14 of them serious, was the result of a design flaw of the plane's Air Data Inertial Reference Unit and a limitation of the aircraft's flight computer software.

[207] On 24 August 2001, Air Transat Flight 236, an A330-200, developed a fuel leak over the Atlantic Ocean due to an incorrectly installed hydraulic part and was forced to glide for over 15 minutes to an emergency landing in the Azores.

[208] On 13 April 2010, Cathay Pacific Flight 780, an A330-300, from Surabaya Juanda International Airport to Hong Kong landed safely after contaminated fuel caused both engines to fail.

[209] On 15 March 2000, a Malaysia Airlines A330-300 suffered structural damage due to leaking oxalyl chloride, a corrosive chemical substance that had been improperly labeled before shipping.

[213] On 24 July 2001, two unoccupied SriLankan Airlines A330s were destroyed amid an attack on Bandaranaike International Airport, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.